The Chronicles of the Crystal Shaman: Nisha Ruby Stonearm
by Cearbhail
Summary: My sixteenth birthday has finally come, and I have found out that I'm cursed for the next month. And just when I wanted to start my own guild! What am I going to do? This figures. Oh well, might as well take it one step at a time. Ashana? What are you doing here? I didn't expect this!
1. 16th birthday

**Cearbhail**:

___It's finally here! A whole day later! The Chronicles of Ruby! Yaay! Going to be a fun time as I'm sure you will realize by the end of the chapter. I'll mention down lower what this story will be about. Ruby is finally 16 and now...everything will become chaotic. How will Ruby handle it? I don't know!  
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___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
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_Dear diary,_

_Today is 4e 207 8th Evening Star. I can't believe it's been two whole years since the stuff we did back when Alduin was alive and trying to kill us all. And since then, I've shot up a whole 12 inches! I'm now 5'9". That's almost as tall as Lydia…just a few inches shorter. I'm like an adult now. I can't wait until Maleek comes back from his assignment that's kept him busy for the past year. Once he got back from his Orc stronghold annihilation quest, he left with his father to take back Black Marsh to take it back. I've gotten letters back from him once in a while telling me that his war is going just fine, and that he wished I could be there, even though the plants in the marsh would kill me with any mistakes I made walking around. He should be back in a few months, and when that happens, I hope he notices how taller I've gotten. Too bad my height is the only thing that improved. I'm flat-chested. I hope he will still love me._

_Cecilie is a year-old now and four months. Her birthday is on 4e 206 17th Heartfire . She's just the cutest thing around. There was a slight side-effect to having Lydia exposed to magicka so strongly while being pregnant to Cecilie, however. She's a bit…intelligent may not be the word…um…aware might be a better one. Let's just say she doesn't coo and pop her diaper like a one year old would. She acts more like a three year old; talks a lot, knows enough words to hold conversations…and like all mages, teleports her poo from diaper into Uncle Fiirnar's face when she wants a laugh. I think it's hilarious she will one day go back in time and date him…when she's throwing poop in his face right now._

_Other than being a good sister and keeping an eye on her so that Lydia and Asger could sleep, I haven't really been up to much. Just getting my guildhall ready for the day I turn sixteen. I hope it's soon. I'm getting impatient. Dad said he'd come visit on my sixteenth birthday so…there's that. I'm just waiting for him now._

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm._

_…_

The Crystal Palace was a wonder to behold. Towering white pillars with a massive frozen lake to skate on outside the palace courtyard. The massive keep itself was amazing, but pretty simple in respects for the other holds. It wasn't a longhouse, but it sure wasn't the Blue Palace either. It just looked…modern. I can't call it anything else. It looked more like an Ayleid castle with the white pillars and Cyrodiilian statues of the gods around the garden…including Talos. All of Winterhold was a sight to behold. Once we cleared away the destroyed buildings and stretched the town out along the giant cliff that led to the sinking of Winterhold in the first place, we had a nice respectable town filled with several shops, a giant Tamriel Alliance Legion base: Fort Septim; named after Martin Septim, the man that gave his body to the gods to defeat Mehrunes Dagon and save the world from Daedric conquest. It was run by Commander Rikke, who ran her troopers like a true general. Attached to the fort was the Aldmeri Alliance counterpart and headquarters, run by Elenwen, Fiirnar, and Nrillia the Corpsemaster. Using her insane ability for necromancy, Nrillia was in charge of healing the wounded that came into the infirmary. And no one ever died on her watch. I was kind of envious of her ability as a healer.

My job around the castle was pretty simple. Whenever Lydia needed a nap away from Cecilie, my job was to…entertain my sister. There, simple. And when leaders of the other nations stopped by to talk to us about forming an alliance for our war on the Aldmeri Dominion, my job was to put on a pretty dress and be with the family. I didn't say much during these meetings but I was still part of the family. Asger had gone and allied with almost everyone, excluding Black Marsh and Valenwood…as well as High Rock. The Orcs were not going to side with us anytime soon, and neither were the Bretons for that matter. Cyrodiil was still under Dominion control so they were out as well. So…we had an alliance with Elsweyr, Hammerfell, Morrowind was still iffy. But I hear House Redoran would be more than glad to help us fight when we needed help. And they were the massive family of Morrowind so…that was good that we had them on our side. And then there was the whole meeting with the Akaviri Alliance…jeez…a lot of alliance named groups around here. That was a fun day. It pretty much went like this.

Three leaders walked into our court. The lizard snake thingy was rude but accepting of joining us, the half-cat/half-lizard wanted nothing more than to have Asger's blood so that he could turn into a dragon, and the monkey threw poop in my face during dinner, completely ruining my apatite by the way. But at the end of the day, we got them all to join the alliance. So, we had almost every nation but the ones I mentioned earlier. I was beginning to wonder when the Dominion would begin their war. They know the minute they act, there is no going back and every nation will go against them. Maybe that's why they refuse to attack; they know what will happen if they try. Meanwhile, they're trying to find a way to bring Dwemer back to Tamriel…and from what we were hearing from Legate Nrillia…they were failing so far to create a resonator capable of breaching the level of Aetherius they ended up in.

So, it was already late into the afternoon and I was resting in my room. Ok…so unlike my room back at the Bards College…my room is pretty big. I had a nice huge bed big enough to fit three of me…and Maleek whenever he gets back. Instead of some small dresser, I had a full walk-in closet with rows and rows of dresses I had to make myself. I learned how to make rabi dresses and obtained silk from the caravan when it came to town. I actually made my own rabi dresses, tops, and skirts now. I figured…why not? I had to…finding Khajiit clothes in Skyrim was hard and the caravan isn't here all the time. Besides my massive closet, I didn't have much else in my room except plushies, a weapons rack, and a full crystal altar filled with massive pillars of crystals almost as tall as me.

"Wooby!" I heard Cecilie call from the hallway. "Wooby, I'm hungie." The little child that barely came up to my knees ran into my room, her shoulder-length dark brown hair flailing madly as she ran into my room. She ran right into my bed, not even stopping as she grabbed on and flipped over on top of my mattress, laughing as she jumped up and down. "Feed me, feed me, feed me!" She screamed as she bounced on my bed.

I grabbed her mid-jump and scooped her into my arms. "Ok, Lilly. Let's get you something to eat." I carried her out of my room. She screamed in joy of having someone feeding her. "Where's mom and dad?"

Cecilie looked up at me with her big hazel eyes. "Mommy is twaining…Daddy is…I forget the word. Mmm…doing bawdic battwe with Mr. big kitty." Big kitty? We didn't have any big kitty here.

"What's Mr. big kitty's name?" I asked her but she only shrugged. "What did he look like?"

She puffed out her cheeks, saying, "Really big puffy face full of fur, owange wike you. He dwesses wike the mages from the cowwege, only the wobes were bwownish…with a hood. Tawked in third person. I thought it was funny." She laughed. "M'aiq came to visit Wooby…" She attempted to imitate the voice of whoever she was thinking of. And then it clicked. She said M'aiq… my dad was back!

I smiled as I carried Cecilie over to the kitchen, which was massive. Our personal chef, Berner, was around here somewhere, so I just had to call him. "Hey, Berner! Get in here. Feed my sister!"

"Right away, Ruby!" I heard Berner calling from the bathroom. "Just creating my own recipe… I'll be a few minutes."

"I'm hungie now!" Cecilie called from my arms.

So I rolled my eyes and set her up on a counter. Once I had her sitting, I smiled and grabbed a pan. "I'll make you something. What do you want?"

"I want curry!" She said. "I wove Wooby's curry." So, I pulled out some ready rice and my already premade curry sauce. I loved curry a lot, and I love making it too. It was a very traditional Khajiit dish and I must admit with the right moon sugar…it was tasty. So, I always had some ready. I poured the curry into a pan and began warming it up underneath our cinder cooking pit while I started heating up the rice as well in a separate cauldron. While they warmed up, I pulled out my favorite flavor of moon sugar, Rimmen Pop, and pulled out my 'clouding' device. I started whipping up some moon clouds for her and me while the food warmed up. Be the time the food was warm enough for Cecilie to eat, I was just finishing up the moon clouds.

It was around this time that I heard a flush and Berner washing his hands. "Nope…this recipe was too runny." He replied to me. "It would never work." Yuck…I didn't even want to know if he was being serious when he said that. It was a disgusting thought. But at least he washed his hands when he was done and wore sanitized gloves while he prepared food. He walked out of the bathroom, drying his hands on a rag. Once he finished he tossed the used rag in a dirty laundry chute where our maids washed our used clothes in the basement and brought them back up to us when they were cleaned. They usually checked every day or so for clothes to clean. Berner walked up to us, checking my cooking curry. He nodded at it, smiling. "I'm glad to have you here helping me, Ruby. This place is just too big for one chef alone to feed it."

I smiled back at him. "Well…chefs from Chefs United have to stand together." I held up the baker's sign: my pointer and pinky finger extended while curling my two inside fingers together. "Besides, you've been a great friend, Berner. I don't know what I would have done last year if you hadn't fed that dragon that came by looking to eat someone."

He nodded. "And to think…he would have eaten Commander Rikke if we hadn't fed him your moon sugar stash." He shook his head. "Well, I would like to continue chatting, Ruby, but I have to prepare dinner. Unless you feel like helping out?"

I had to shake my head at that. "Nah…I really can't. I just found out from my little sister that my dad has come back home."

She looked up at me. "Dad is awways home." She said.

I looked down at her. "I have two fathers. M'aiq…the big kitty you saw daddy fighting with…he's my other father. The one that helped create me."

Cecilie nodded like she understood. "Oh…ok. So, Mr. big kitty is Wooby's daddy. Ok."

I looked at Berner. "Will you keep her company while she eats? I want to go see my dad."

Berner nodded. "Have no fear, Berner is here." He said as he prepared Cecilie's plate of curry. He picked up Cecilie and carried her over to the table. "Want to hear about the time I helped feed an entire town of pigmy Orcs?"

"Yay!" Cecilie cried out. "Stowy time!"

I left the kitchen, hanging up my apron as I quickly jogged to the courtyard. And once I pushed past the main door, I could see Asger battling dad; both of them with their hands out in a bardic challenge. I could feel their individual souls screaming out, trying to push the other soul down so that this contest could be concluded. Standing near the doorway was Ksaan, who stood there with his arms crossed. He looked a little taller than I remember, just as tall as me. He was dressed in bright red and yellow robes that looked rabi-ish in design. When he saw me, he smiled. "Oh…hey sis." His eyes widened as he looked at me. "Wow you've grown. Still skinny as a fox though." He poked me in the stomach. "Do you even eat?"

I nodded. "Yeah, probably more than I should but…having heightened reflexes due to my Blades training sped up my metabolism. I can eat as much as I want…my stomach can keep up with me." I looked back at dad and Asger fighting with each other. "Ok…so…why have you guys come to visit?"

He reached into his pouch and pulled out a wrapped gift. "Happy birthday." He said. "It's your sixteenth if we're not mistaken."

"What? Really?" I said as I took the gift from him. "It's my birthday?" I had completely forgotten to ask dad about it. And it was my sixteenth at that! I'm a full adult. And more than that…I can finally start my own guild. I ripped the gift open and there sat a small ring with a malachite embedded into it. "Oh, thanks. What is it?"

He held up his own finger. "It's a…well…a negating ring. He blocks your…you remember when I told you about the Sen'la'gar?"

I had to think about it, but I remembered it. It was a thing that he did that made him invincible or something like that. "Kinda. It's a spell, right?"

He shook his head. "Not at all. It's a bloodline. You have one too, and I saw you use it once when you fought alongside Maleek. Tell me…what do you remember of that fight you had on the ship?"

I really had to think about it. "Um…I felt alive…really alive. And then all I remember was Maleek holding me, telling me the fight was over. I didn't really remember anything at that point. Just tired…like my muscles were screaming at me to stop."

Ksaan nodded. "It's a gene in our blood that makes us insanely strong and impervious to pain. The only problem is that we can't really control it very well, at least now while we are young. We go blood-crazy and pretty much kill anything that gets in our way, anything we perceive as a threat at least. And…well, I don't need to tell you what happens when you lose control of your actions, right?" I'm not sure I understood, but I nodded. "We lose the ability to judge appropriate battles and underestimate our chances of walking out of a fight alive. Many fighters with our bloodline died in battle because they fought someone too hard…and with this…there is no defense, just pure onslaught." He looked at me. "You are better off keeping it contained while you can."

So…that's what it was. It was a berserk mode for Khajiits…but only certain Khajiits of the same bloodline. "Ok…so…how come I haven't gone and killed the whole village?"

He shrugged. "Have you been fighting things past your fifteenth birthday?" I shook my head. Apart from the hungry dragon, we hadn't fought anything in the past year. Just me watching my baby sister. "That's when it normally starts up…around your fifteenth birthday, and it's caused by stress or a threat to yours or others' safety." He shrugged. "Without that stress, your blood won't come to a boil. And when you wear this ring…you won't have to worry about shredding your family members over some stupid argument."

I nodded and looked at dad. His soul was pushing bravely against Asger's and I swear this fight could go on forever, so I had to do something about it. "Hi, dad!" I screamed to him. And just like that, he broke the eye contact and Asger's soul crushed him. Dad cried out in pain as he crumpled underneath Asger's soul. He lied there for a few seconds while Asger pulled his soul back into his aura, taking a calming breath as he walked away.

He stopped a few feet away from dad and smiled. "Almost got me M'aiq. If Ruby hadn't stepped in…you might have beaten me." Oops…I think I just caused my father unneeded pain. Yay! Asger walked up to me, gave me a hug, and said, "Oh…happy birthday, Ruby." He walked past me and into the castle. "Make sure to tell Lydia the good news. You're officially an adult."

And now that I was an adult…there was nothing stopping me from starting my own guild. Well, I did need two other founders of the guild to start it up. And they both had to be at least sixteen as well. Oh well, I'd deal with that later. Right now, I should at least see my dad and my brother. Who knows…maybe they'll co-sign with me on the guild. I looked at Ksaan, pouting. "Will you help me start up a guild?"

He shook his head. "Can't. I'm a firedrake now…I can't join any guilds outside Elsweyr. I need to be ready for when the Mane needs my magical assistance. But…I will come hang out and help you if you need it. Once you get it started, I guess I could be an honorary member, but I can't be a founder." Well that sucks. I already had one person who would co-sign: Samantha. She lived here in Winterhold. She was a member of the Tamriel Alliance Legion, or TAL soldier (tall) as we call them. She came to visit often, but she was normally out fighting Falmer whenever they poked their nasty heads out of the caves nearby.

I walked up to dad, who was just picking himself out of the snow. "M'aiq must say…" He looked around. "He likes the frozen wonderland of your castle. Even the white marble…it speaks to M'aiq."

I hugged him close. "Welcome back, dad." I wanted this moment for a while now, and it was finally here. I couldn't ask for a better birthday present. I looked up at him. "Is today really my birthday?" He nodded and then I stepped away, crossing my arms. "Why couldn't someone have told me?"

He shrugged. "M'aiq thought it would be best to wait for her sixteenth birthday to tell her. And, M'aiq must share something with her." He grabbed me by my shoulders. "All Khajiits have bad luck on their first month as adults. We call this time our birthday trial…and Ruby's will begin shortly. M'aiq thought he'd warn her ahead of time so that she may be prepared to face the worst. Did she receive her ring from Ksaan?" I nodded. He sighed a relief. "Never take it off…no need to put Ruby in more danger than needed. Be mindful for the next 30 days Ruby…she will need to be." He turned to leave.

"What? You're leaving already?" I shouted to him as he turned to leave. I looked at the ground and picked up a wad of snow. I packed it into a snowball and threw it at him. It launched off my hand incorrectly and smashed into a pine tree packed with snow. The tree wobbled and before I could react, a massive wave of snow crashed on top of me. I found myself buried in snow. Ok…that was weird. Was this the bad luck my dad had warned me about? A hand suddenly grabbed mine and pulled me out. It was my dad's.

He smiled. "Not at all. He just wanted to take a step back in case something happened." He helped pat off all the snow off my body, saying, "She needs to be careful. Stuff like this will be normal for the next 30 days. Do not ask M'aiq why…it just happens." So…stuff like this was going to happen to me for the next 30 days? What a rip!

"Ok, so is bad stuff going to happen to my friends?" I looked at dad for an answer.

He only shook his head and turned around. "No, the bad luck is only Ruby's to share. If Ruby is wondering if her friends will get hurt by her bad luck, they will not. It's only against Ruby…but be mindful…sometimes bad things happen around Ruby. Do not be surprised if a wall falls down around her because construction workers are fixing a leak or something of the nature. And her guildhall…it should not be ventured into until her trial is over. Ruby would be very unlucky to lose her guildhall already."

"So…I have to wait a month before I can start up my own guild?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Bad luck to start a guild during this period, Ruby. She may start her guild on the 9th of next month to be safe. Until then…just be careful." He walked away from me and over to a giant cart filled with stuff. "M'aiq brought Ruby some gifts. My, my, how much she has grown. It is a good thing Lydia told M'aiq how tall his little Ruby had gotten." He walked up to me and placed his head to mine. I was almost just as tall as my dad! Finally, I'm truly an adult! He handed me a few giant presents. "New rabi for Ruby, latest trending dresses for women Ruby's age." He smiled and rubbed my head. "M'aiq will be staying here for Ruby's trial. Ksaan will be going home."

Ksaan looked at me, nodding. "It was nice seeing you sister, but I don't really have time to chat. The Mane is expecting a skirmish with the Dominion mages soon, and all firedrakes are needed to defend the capital of Elsweyr. And since I'm a Sen'la'guardian…I'm very special to him." He turned to leave. "Wish I could stay and chat though. Have fun and try not to worry…my trial wasn't that hard." With that, Ksaan left with a hug and started going to a rented carriage. He was probably going to take the carriage back to Elsweyr instead of a ship. He gets horribly seasick.

Dad lifted up a couple giant suitcases and headed for the door to the castle. "Where is M'aiq going to be staying?"

I had to think about it for a second. Where could he stay? "We have guest rooms, sure…but…" I scratched my head and then a candle lit over my head. "I know…" I grabbed onto his hand and dragged him with me. I was pulling him away from the castle, so he looked confused but he didn't fight me too hard. "Just…trust me!" I growled as I pulled him away from the door. I led him out of the courtyard and down the road. As we walked down the road, I couldn't help but look around at all the shops. We had a full smithy run by one of Urag's sons, Voluung, and one of his daughters, Tuva, served as his assistant. They were pretty cool, I'll give them that. They lived in the stronghold just outside town. You could see it was just a mile out. It stood like a huge city on its own. Right past the smithy was my guildhall. Yeah…it was that close. It was a pretty big guildhall constructed of the same material stone that the Crystal Palace was built out of. And it was also the same stone the Ayleids used for their now ruins. They used crystals in their time, so I thought there might be a connection between the two.

I pointed to my guildhall, looking at dad. He only nodded before saying, "Ok…what is this place?"

"This is where my guild will be started. The Crimson Blades. Samantha hangs out here with me a lot and we have a lot of fun decorating the place for the moment we can start the guild. But…it looks like we have to wait for a month…and a third signer." I leaned closer to him. "Can you do it?"

He shook his head. Shab! I have the worst luck…go figure. "Liars cannot join guilds, Ruby. It is a fate the Liars have to live with." I opened the door for him and he walked right past me. "Where are the bedrooms? M'aiq does not want Ruby inside her guildhall while she is cursed. Might fall down around her. Or something valuable may break." My luck was already bad…how much worse could it possibly be?

"What bad luck?" Samantha asked as she walked up. She was my best friend; a red-headed…more like crimson-headed Breton with brown eyes and hair that went halfway down her back. She always had it pulled back into a ponytail though. She was a little taller than me. She dressed in full TAL heavy armor, which looked more streamline than the Imperial Legion armor. That's because it's crystalline. I made it…with Voluung's help. He made the base metal and I introduced the crystal element. Upon searching the ancient tomes of shamanism…I found out how to fuse crystals and metal together without trying to smelt them. I fused their entire being and spirit to the already indestructible metal of orichalcum. It was perfect and shined like opalite. It looked great in contrast with her navy blue leather underarmor. Her diamond sword hung on her hips, which I also made. Let's face it…I'm not letting these TAL soldiers go into war without some protection. They bring me crystals…and I use some to help them. Everyone wins.

M'aiq looked back at me and nodded to Samantha. "My daughter Ruby has entered her birthday trial."

"Birthday trial?" Samantha asked. Then something in her mind clicked. "Oh…I heard something about that. Khajiits develop a month worth of bad luck on their sixteenth birthday…right?" She looked at my dad and he nodded. She smiled and grabbed my hands. "This is wonderful news!" She screamed to me, which made me arch an eyebrow. "Ruby?!" She screamed to me. "It's your sixteenth birthday! We can finally start that guild!"

I sighed. "We still need a third person to join us." But she was right; we could start it any minute. We just had to go to Lydia and request a form to sign that would start our guild. It would say stuff like: Name of the guild; Purpose; Requirements for joining; Three Founding Signatures; and Date of Creation. And just like that…we'd have our guild. But only once we had that third person to sign. "Do you think anyone in the TAL would join?"

She shook her head. "No one is worthy of being a founder, Ruby. You are the original shaman…and I am a nightblade. This guild is supposed to be about the study and practice of crystal shamanism, right? We're the only two who are not the High King and Queen of Skyrim that can even do something like that. The ones that are belong to the College up the road…and I'm sorry to say this but they're a bunch of snobs. There is no one like us in this town."

I sighed as I looked down at her hands clasped on mine. I wasn't the original shaman. I was taught everything from my friend Ashana. But…I hadn't seen her in years now. I hadn't even heard anything about her. I don't know if she was even alive. And the mages up in the college were snobbish. Faralda was nice but the other ones were just…I won't call them weird. That would be an insult to weird people. And when I mentioned my shamanism, they looked down at me saying that old magic such as mine was what was keeping magicka from developing and prospering. "I guess you're right. I hope someone comes by later who's interested. Keep looking around, ok?"

She nodded. "Ok, but…I'm just glad it's finally coming together." She walked away from me over to my dad. "I'm guessing you're staying here then?" He nodded and Samantha took one of his suitcases from him. "I'll show you to the massive sleeping quarters downstairs." She looked back at me and winked. "Sorry, Ruby, but I can't let you in until your trial finishes. Don't need any crystals vibrating so high that they explode." She said it in a joking way but I couldn't help but think she was hinting at something I didn't know.

Once dad got his stuff in order, I walked back up to the castle. It was time for dinner and we were having roasted boar. I stayed out of the dining room, where Lydia and Asger were waiting for me to enter. Lydia looked up at me, smiling. "Ruby? What's wrong? Aren't you going to join us for dinner?"

I hesitated before I looked at her and Asger. "Um…it's my sixteenth birthday."

She nodded. "I know. What's wrong?" She started to stand up. "You're not moving out are you?" I shook my head and then she looked from me over to Asger, who chewed his food slowly. He already knew why I wasn't entering the room. "Well…I don't understand. What's going on?" She looked from me over to him.

I sighed. "I'm kinda…cursed for the next month." I said to her. "Every Khajiit…when they turn sixteen…they have a birthday trial that lasts exactly one month. So…for the next 30 days…I'm cursed."

She scoffed at the idea and waved me to the table. "Nonsense. Either way, we won't keep you from the table. Come sit down and enjoy some dinner." And I did. I walked up to the table and sat down. Right as I reached for a plate and a carving knife to cut something from the massive boar, the boar let out a squeal and jumped up. Just like that, our food was up and moving like it was alive. It squealed and charged right off the table, throwing mash potatoes everywhere as it did so. The boar rushed right over top of me, charging past me and out the dining room doorway. I sat there completely stunned. What had just happened?

Asger started laughing as he stood up from his chair. "This will be a fun month." He said as he waved to Aela, his housecarl. "Aela…go kill our dinner and throw it back in the oven." She nodded and took off. He looked down at me and smiled. "Ruby…do you mind if we have some of your leftover curry?"

"Yay!" Cecilie called from her high chair.

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**Cearbhail**:

_Well, that's the first chapter. What did you guys think? Back to the humor of the Chronicles world. Random stuff going on, random hilarious conversations, and...well...next chapter you'll see. Things are about to get crazy for Ruby and her friends. Let's just say...her guild will become very useful soon enough and it will test her knowledge of resonance. The events following the happenings at the college in Winterhold will finally break out. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll figure it out soon enough. Enjoy the ride. It shouldn't be a very long one, but that all depends on how long I need this story to be.  
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	2. New Quests all around!

**Cearbhail**:

___Chapter 2 already! Well, I really wanted to give you guys more than just one chapter to read. I'll be taking a small break, maybe a day or so. And then I should update my older stories like the Rogue Shadowscale. They deserve more updates too. Well anyway, stuff happens and it explains most of what's going on in this storyline. Enjoy! Oh...and I was wrong. This storyline might be pretty large after all. And the reason is simple...Changing Fates does not involve this particular storyline, but it's parallel one, the other Cecilie's future, not this one. So the Fiirnar in this story has to die...the Dwemer in this story also have to meet their fate. So...I'm guessing part of this will tie into Changing Fates, maybe. I'm not sold on the idea of combining the two storylines into one like this. Maybe a parallel changing fates tie-in called the Chronicles of Cecilie or something, I'm not sure yet. Anyway, that's still a ways away.  
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___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
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_Dear diary,_

_It's the 14th of Evening Star. I've been living with this curse for a few days now…ok, almost a whole week. It's not been so bad…well…maybe. I tried to dye my mane blue and lavender again…and I accidentally spilled ink in my dye. My mane's jet black now. That was just the start of the trouble. My shampoo apparently has a new ingredient in it…honey. Which I'm allergic too. I've been sneezing up snot Thu'ums all week. And I'm covered in rashes…and I'm shedding like crazy! At least one week has passed and hopefully I can just get used to how things are going to be. Other than those two things, nothing bad has happened to me. Sure, some minor stuff has happened. Feeding Cecilie has led to some unexpected vomit, and the toilet may have backed up and exploded because of me. Luckily, I wasn't there to see it happen…Lydia was._

_Hopefully, these next three weeks won't be so bad. I've been talking to Samantha and she's been really nice about this whole thing, although she refuses to be around me in case something weird happens. Oh well…it's only for a month. And five days have already passed. I just have to suffer through the next few weeks. And Asger is here, and so is dad. With their help, I'm sure I can get through this just fine._

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm._

_…_

I refused to stay in my room, and instead stayed in the guest room. During this time, it was best if the cursed stayed away from their stuff. I started wearing some of my basic illuminated leather dresses I made from deer. They were expendable and I could always make more if they were destroyed. And I won't lie…I've lost a few dresses the past few days. Some of them caught on fire while I was working in the kitchen, others simply tore. At least they were dresses I could replace in a second. I wasn't about to waste my rabi for this curse. So, here I was…Princess of Skyrim, living in a guest room, wearing deer pelts with jet black hair…and it's only week one. Sure this can't get any worse.

I climbed out of the guest bed and stretched my back. As I started to stand up, the legs on the bed-frame cracked and broke underneath me. The entire bed fell to the floor with a loud thud. Good thing I was already on my feet. That might have been slightly painful. Oh well, looks like we'd have to replace the bed-frame…or I could just leave it on the ground. It wasn't like it was forever, just until this month was over. I walked out of the guest room and upstairs to where Asger was holding court. I had to see him about what I was going to do for the next few days. Hopefully it won't be so bad that I have to move out. You see…we have guests coming over. And I shouldn't be here while I'm cursed. I'll only cause problems.

I made sure my completely simple leather dress still looked royal enough to please our visitors. I didn't want to look like a wildcat living in the castle. I'm still Khajiit and people tend to look down on me if I don't present myself in a certain way. And that looks bad on Asger when he has to defend me. I walked into the court where Asger sat on his throne like he was bored out of his mind. When he saw me coming up, he smiled. "Ah, Ruby! Come here." I walked over to him and he nodded. "How'd you sleep last night?"

"I spent the whole night scratching myself. There's a pile of fur lying under the sheets." It was true. I'm still covered in rashes and they itched like crazy. It took me three days to figure out it was my shampoo/fur wash that was doing it to me. And when I did, I had to find some fur wash that didn't have honey in it. Surprise surprise…somehow every fur wash had honey in it at the second. Yet, I bet once this curse is done they won't.

Asger nodded. "Sorry to hear that, honey." He said the term he used for endearing me. But when he said it this time, I couldn't help but look away. He seemed to notice it and sighed. "Ok…I'll find a new thing to call you. Buttercup?" I shook my head. "Furball?"

"That's Maleek's name for me." I replied.

"Hmm…princess?"

That's when Cecilie came stomping into the court while she ran to Asger. "Here, daddy!" She called as she climbed into his lap.

Asger shrugged and looked up at me. "Ruby?" I shrugged at that and he nodded. "Ok, Ruby it is." He looked down at Cecilie, ticking her. She laughed, curling up to protect her sides. "How did you sleep, Lilly?"

"Good. I dweamt about ponies." She replied.

"That's good." Asger replied, looking up at me. "Well, Ruby. What did you want?"

"What should I do? You have a visitor coming today, right?" He nodded. When he said nothing I shrugged. "Well…I shouldn't be here, right?"

He chuckled as he went back to tickling Cecilie. "Ruby…it's just a phase. Lord Neloth won't care for one second that you're cursed. He's met you once, right?" And I nodded. I remembered meeting him…but if I recalled correctly, he wouldn't remember me. "Well, then don't worry. He's a very tolerant person." Asger averted his eyes to the doorway and a smile broke out. "Oh…and here he is."

I looked to the doorway to see the very person strolling into the castle. He looked worse for wear. He had tears in his robes and he looked like he had just come out of a serious war. He walked up to the court, traveling down the red carpet leading to Asger's throne. "High King, I request your assistance."

Asger nodded. "I have received your letter. You told me you were visiting and the details of your visit. So, if I am to be correct…the research you've conducted the past few years have led to a discovery that heart stones have led to a monumental evil force brewing in Solstiem. And this force has taken control over people's minds. Correct?"

Lord Neloth nodded. "That would be correct. Not only Tel Mithryn but of all Solstiem. I thought my students and I had dealt with the source of the wicked power two years ago…but it has only gotten worse. Ash spawn run amok on the island, my entire village enslaved by a stone that I know nothing about, only that it has a sickening thought to it. And the whisperings of my apprentice, who lies ill in her bed. She is unaffected like myself, but she seems to be fighting it while I am unaffected wholly. She whispers a name, Miraak…which I have put some time to study on. Miraak…he was the first Dragonborn, the original. And you…are the last at this given moment."

Asger held up little Cecilie. "_She's_ the last at the given moment." He looked down at the little drooling girl and said, "Say hi to Lord Neloth."

Cecilie covered her eyes and giggled. Asger put her back down on his lap and looked up at Lord Neloth. "What happened to you?"

"I went to investigate the odd structures my village has been building. When I tried to destroy the very structure, I was overcome with magic far beyond my scope. It comes from a god…Mora, I believe. I need your help for you are a Dragonborn. I feel that having you on my investigation will lead to some sort of resolution, hopefully before my village dies in the most painful way." Lord Neloth looked from Asger over to me. "Hello…I remember you. You were the shaman that helped us two years ago."

That made me curious. "I thought you wiped your mind of the whole thing."

He nodded. "I did, but I took notes, and you were in the notes. I recognize the Princess of Skyrim, crystal shaman…same vibrational frequency as our Ashland witches." He was about to say something, but there happened to be a loud thud coming from the doorways. There stood three masked fellows with weird robes. Their masks were in a design of a giant tentacle monster…like a squid or something. I think it was supposed to be a kraken, a monster that hadn't been seen since the Aedra War.

Asger looked to the new people and then looked back at Lord Neloth. "Do you recognize them?"

He nodded his head. "They look like the guardians that oversee the structures I mentioned earlier. Beware, they are not easy to beat."

One of the three walked into the room. "Are you the one they call the Dragonborn?" He asked Asger. He nodded and the guy stuck out his hand. "You are not the _true_ Dragonborn! You are but a lie, a poison, a false prophet! Miraak is the true Dragonborn and he will reclaim all of Tamriel!"

Asger stood up from this throne, walking over to me. "Ruby…watch Cecilie for me." I took her from him and he walked up to Lord Neloth. "Did you hear that?" He glanced at Neloth. "They said 'Miraak.' I think you might be onto something, Neloth."

He glanced over at Asger. "Of course I am. I'm a Telvanni Lord…I know what I'm talking about. Master wizards of House Telvanni don't fool around on research."

"Enough spewing your sick and twisted lies!" One of the apparent cultists said. "You shall suffer defeat and kneel to Miraak this day!" He looked around for a second before saying, "The end is nigh!" And he unsheathed a sword and charged forward. When he did so, he was welcomed to a volt of electricity so powerful that it engulfed his body. I looked at Lord Neloth, who had barely lifted a finger to create such a force. He really was a master wizard. When the flash ended, there was nothing left at all. The other two cultists warmed up magicka in their hands and charged in to fight. I watched as Asger took a deep breath and released his Unrelenting Force Shout. They were lifted off their feet and thrown out of the castle.

I didn't watch the rest. Lord Neloth and Asger stepped outside and all I heard were several explosions, some fire spilled into the doorway, and then silence. Asger and Lord Neloth walked back into the room without a scratch on them. "Well, that was an annoyance." Lord Neloth replied. He turned to look at Asger. "You see what I am talking about? Things like this have been happening on the island. And it ties in back to you. I need your help on this investigation, otherwise I doubt I will find out any more than I already have."

Asger nodded. "I understand. If what you say is true…Raven Rock is in trouble. And soon enough, the rest of Tamriel might be in trouble." He looked back at me. "Ruby…I need to you to stay here and watch Cecilie for me. Until Lydia gets back."

"Where did she go?" With my luck…that wasn't such a good idea.

"Just out to town. She'll be back in minutes. I need to go now." He kissed me on the forehead and turned back to Lord Neloth. "Let's go." And they marched out the doorway. I can't believe it…Asger was being dragged into another questline! That meant he wouldn't be back for months…or longer! Like 100 chapters longer or something! I looked down at the little Cecilie who looked up at me with her big hazel eyes.

I sighed as I bounced her on my hip. "So…"

"Why is your hair falling out?" She asked me as she pulled a fist full of my fur off my shoulder. "And your hair is bwack!" She pointed up at my mane.

This was starting out well. "Well…I'm cursed so…yeah. Things like this will happen to me all month long. Which is why…you shouldn't be with me right now."

She struggled to get out of my arms so I let her down. She took off running. "Keep your cursed fingers off me!" She screamed as she charged out of the room. Too bad I had to watch her, otherwise I'd just let her run. Sure, we had maids and guards all throughout the castle, but I was currently tasked with her safety. So…I had to go find a maid to go find her with me and then leave her with that maid. Or Aela.

"You look like you're having fun." Samantha said as she walked into the castle. She scanned the room for a few seconds before saying, "I heard the explosions from the barracks. What happened?"

"Just some cultists drawing my father into a war." I replied. "You know…new questline and all that."

She nodded. "Our High King is not currently at his post?" When I nodded, she sighed and walked up next to me. "I guess High Queen Lydia is charge then." She made a cross on her chest plate. "May Talos preserve us." I started walking towards where Cecilie took off. Samantha followed behind me. "Where you going?" She started following me.

"I'm watching my baby sister and she's totally not behaving." I replied and started looking around the hallways for her. "With the cultists out picking a bone with Asger…Cecilie would be a great piece of leverage to use against him. I want to make sure there are no more cultists around that can harm her."

"Wait?" Samantha said with a tone that said she wasn't joking around. She had a face etched in stone and she had some fierce-looking eyes. "Are you telling me the life of the Princess Cecilie is in possible danger?" When I nodded her hair started levitating from her magicka aura. "This is intolerable! Those nasty fiends will have to pry her from my cold lifeless hands!" And she took off through the halls. "Princess, please come back!" She screamed as she charged through the halls.

Oh yeah… I should explain. You see Samantha is a diehard soldier. And she is with the unit that was sent here to overlook the protection of the Throne. Cecilie was a princess and because of that, she was just as important as Asger or Lydia was. More important…she couldn't protect herself yet. She hadn't even figured out how to control her magicka yet. She could do things like teleport her poop into Fiirnar's face, but making fire wasn't' so easy for her. So, if Samantha even heard for a second that Cecilie might be in danger, she gets pretty frantic on protecting her.

"I can't find her." Samantha said as she ran up to me. "This is unforgivable!" She pounded her fist against a wall. "I have failed as a nightblade!" She cried. She looked at me, walking up to me. "Ruby…I need you to strike me in the face for penance as my failure to protect the Princess of Skyrim." Oh yeah…and she was into getting punished for when she failed to do something. If I didn't strike her in the face, she'd just go and train her fighting or magic until she passed out and ended up in the infirmary for body neglect. So, I smacked her in the face hard enough to make her stumble backwards.

"There, you're punished." I mumbled to her as I looked behind her. Cecilie was standing there with a wide grin on her face. She apparently was playing hide-and-seek with us and was having some fun with it.

"I win!" She screamed as she ran into Samantha's legs, hugging her close. "Sammy!" She cried. "Thank you for pwaying!"

Samantha broke down into tears and bent down to hug her. "Oh, Princess…you're safe. I'm so relieved!" I just rolled my eyes and walked back to the court. Lydia was standing in the doorway with Farengar. He was the current Arch-Mage for the college here in town that delved into magical studies. He was nice to me and often reassessed that no one at the college thought I was lesser just because I practiced shamanism instead of full-blown magicka. He was currently doing tests with Odahviing and Paarthurnax on dragon blood. He was trying to isolate the gene and create new Dragonborns. Well…Dragonbloods at least. He was getting close to a breakthrough. He just couldn't find the link to actual humans capable of keeping the blood in their system without dying violent deaths.

Standing behind Farengar and Lydia was some guy dressed in monk robes. I couldn't see his face. Maybe it was dad? I didn't see a tail, so I doubt it. Lydia saw me and waved me forward. Samantha followed behind me with Cecilie in her arms. As I got closer I could see that it was a Dunmer. And he looked familiar but I couldn't remember where I saw him. "Ruby…you remember Erandur, don't you?" Erandur! That was his name. Yeah, I remembered him. I almost died to save the town of Dawnstar from his mistake. And I had ventured through his lifeline and thought what he thought…seen what he'd seen. It showed a whole new perspective on life and I never forgot it. So, why had I forgotten his face? Simple. He was missing an eye and half of his face was scarred with burn marks where he was missing an eye. He was slightly deformed. What happened to him?

I nodded and walked up to Erandur, sticking out my hand for a handshake. He looked down at my hand before saying, "I don't have that hand anymore." His voice sounded like pebbles in a cauldron being heated up. He looked at me and then to Lydia. "Are you sure she can help?"

Lydia nodded. "If anyone can help you…it's her."

He looked back at me and nodded. He looked at Farengar, wincing. "You had better explain the situation Arch-Mage. I'm no good with words."

Farengar looked at me, rubbing his chin. "This was before my time, and I was hoping that the High King or at least Brelyna would be here to help me. You see…back when High King was in the college, there was a situation with the Eye of Magnus. When it was overcharging and destroying the college, the High King used the Staff of Magnus to not only destroy the effects of the Eye but disarm it. Well…we've been seeing pockets of neutral space forming in parts of Tamriel. It would see that one has opened up in Dawnstar." He looked at Erandur. "You mind telling her what you've seen."

Erandur opened his mouth and I heard him speak with a gargled deep voice that sent shivers down my spine. "There is a rift where Vaermina's unholy staff once lied. The entire palace has become overrun by these…orbs…I don't know what to call them. The rift is only becoming bigger and bigger…and my associate cannot do anything about it by herself. She requested the help of a shaman or something. I figured you'd be able to help, and since it appears that the High King is gone…I need your help." He walked up to me. "I have to warn you though. My face and my body are direct results of trying to deal with it alone. I suggest you bring a couple friends."

"I'll come!" Samantha called. She put Cecilie down and walked over to me, throwing her arm over my shoulder. "She's my friend. I'll help her."

Farengar stepped up, raising his hand. "I would most like to come as well. I may be needed, and we have kept the Staff of Magnus if ever such a thing were to happen again." He looked down at me. "I hope you do not mind, Ruby. I merely wish to bring you as a consultant in case something else is going on that is involved with the spiritual realms…where a shaman such as yourself would be more valuable than a mage like me." Jeez…stop pandering me.

I waved him off. "Yeah, yeah. I understand. Let's go." I looked back at Lydia. "Looks like my luck is only getting worse."

She hugged me close. "Be careful." And then she looked at Samantha. "And I want you to look over her. Ok?"

Samantha nodded. "Roger, High Queen. I'll keep Ruby safe." She smiled up at me. "I think we should consider this our first quest for our new guild."

"New guild?" Lydia asked. "What new guild?"

I looked up at Lydia and smiled. "Um…you know. The Crimson Blades. It's my new guild that I was going to start up with Samantha when I turned sixteen. And…then this whole mess of being cursed made me want to wait until the curse passed. That and we need a third signature."

Lydia nodded. "Ok. That is true; you do need a third founder to create a guild." She patted me on the shoulder. "I have a good feeling about this Ruby. I think you'll find your third member on your first official quest."

That's right…this _was_ my first real quest. Before I was tagging along with Lydia and Asger during the Dragon Crisis, and then I was kidnapped. I fought but it was never _my_ quest. This was my quest. I looked at Samantha and nodded to her. "Well…we should go."

We followed Erandur and Farengar as they brought us to the carriage. It looked like a sturdy carriage so I thought nothing of it when I climbed inside. When we climbed inside, one of the wheels feel off and we all crashed into the side of the carriage as it fell on its broken axle. I cursed as Samantha squashed me against a wall with her armored body. "Shab…I should have guessed this would happen." I said as I tried to push Samantha off me. We all clambered out of the broken carriage and I started walking for Dawnstar. It wasn't that far after all. At least Nightcaller Temple wasn't. "Ok, guys…we have to walk." I said to them. "My curse won't let me ride in a carriage." I looked up in the sky to see dark clouds forming above us. And then, as if on cue, it started raining down on top of me. "Figures." I replied. The rain was only located around me. Well…dad did say that it would target me and only me.

Samantha only shook her head and walked over to me. "I'm sorry you have to endure this Ruby."

"Yeah…aren't we all." I grumbled as we started walking for Nightcaller Temple. I was getting soaked from the freezing rain. I would freeze before we got to Nightcaller Temple. I had to do something. I pulled out a sunstone bracelet from my everbag that I hung off my shoulder like a purse. I clasped it on and I focused on the crystal. It activated and I felt the heat from the stone overwhelm by body, keeping me warm even when I should have been freezing. That was sunstone's special ability: keeping me warm with the heat of the sun.

We walked for a while in silence. The rain let up about ten minutes into the journey. I guess it had to end sometime. Farengar looked at Erandur, saying, "So…this rift. What was it like?"

He looked at Farengar and then at me. "It was like a tunnel into Aetherius itself. Orbs made up of pure magicka started unraveling the fabric of time around the temple. I managed to blow one of them up, but when it did explode, it almost took my life. You see these scars…they are from the explosion that followed killing one of hundreds of orbs." He looked at me. "I get the feeling you have quite the battle ahead of you." He looked down at his two hands: one charred to a crisp the other still normal. "I remember the eyes of the one who watched from the other side of the rift. He stood tall and ready for war. A name he whispered to me: Qron." Erandur grabbed his head. "He tried to reach through the portal, but something stopped him and he vanished." He looked at me. "My first thought was to get the High King down to inspect it. But he's gone so you'll have to do."

I nodded. "Yeah…I'm curious now." Qron. I had heard that name before. I just couldn't remember where. Qron and Miraak. Two names I should know but didn't have a clue about.

Erandur looked on ahead as he saw the outline of the Nightcaller Temple. "Well…we'll find out soon enough if you and your friend are ready for this."

With my bad luck…I probably wasn't ready for this. I just hoped it wouldn't lead to anything bad. Why couldn't something like this wait another 25 days? I looked down at my belt. My diamond sword hung off my belt, ready to be drawn at a second's notice. I reached into my bag and pulled out my malachite bracelet. It had a negating effect on anything magical or vibrational. It actually created a shield for me, and that's what I hoped it would do: protect me from whatever was inside this temple. "Sam?"

"Yes, Ruby?" She called from behind me.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked her.

"I'm a nightblade, Ruby. I know I'm not some Thane of Skyrim like you…and I may not have saved Tamriel from a dragon god…but I can fight, and you know that better than anyone." She walked up to me. "Besides…if we're going to run a guild…we have to set the example, right? We _have_ to do this…for our guild's sake." She walked past me. "Oh, Lord of Lords, bringer of life and energy…" Her body started glowing with magicka. She was using an incantation. "I beseech thee to lend me thy holy light. Defend me and my own as we travel the planes meant only for those willing to throw their lives to save others from fates worse than death." With that, her incantation finished and her body's aura solidified into a protection shield surrounding her body. And just as fast, light started covering us as well. Shields formed around us and I felt the presence of Akatosh watching over us.

Farengar arched his eyebrows. "Was that an incantation?" When Samantha nodded, he shook his head. "Such old magic…rivaling on shamanism." He looked between the two of us. "I see you two have a lot in common."

"A nightblade is not above learning new or…old ways to defend herself. I merely requested my protector to protect me. It cost me naught…while a shield spell requires not only my power but concentration. I cannot be afforded that cost of both spiritual and mental fatigue when fighting with my blade." She started walking for the tower. "How could I protect my friends if half my mind was on my shield? This way…my god is watching out for me…not the other way around. It is simply an act of faith."

Erandur looked at Farengar. "She is right…the Divines watch out for us if we are willing to give them faith. That is the path of the priest…the paladin…and the nightblade."

Farengar looked at me and shrugged. "What, I meant no disrespect, I was intrigued. I haven't met mages that care about the old ways anymore; I wish to see more of it myself." He walked up to us. "We forget that going forward, sometimes we have to look back to know where we were and how it started. History is important. Take the Dwemer for example. Where did they go? If we're not careful…we'll find out ourselves."

As we came up to the tower, I could feel the rift from where I was standing. I could feel it like a tremor underneath our feet through the ground. Apparently I wasn't the only one because Farengar was rubbing his hand on the ground. "This…oh my." He said. "This is indeed a dire situation. The entire fabric of our dimension is in danger of deteriorating."

I looked at Samantha. "Looks like our guild is really needed after all." This could not be worse if I could imagine it. Well, it could be worse. Our dimension could already be deteriorating. Was the Eye of Magnus really at fault for this? I wish I could have seen it for myself to know for certain. And the only two people who've encountered it and survived were in Solstiem. Looks like I had to do this with Sam, Eran, and Farengar. I didn't have a choice. There wasn't anyone else.

The door to the temple opened up and I saw…someone I thought I'd never see. She looked so much older, and taller. But it was her…I would know it anywhere. It was Ashana. She stood at the temple's door, her emotionless eyes looking at us. "Sir…it's grown larger." She looked from Erandur over to me. I think I saw a bit of a twinkle in her eyes, or a beginning of a smile. But she didn't express it. "Dick-licker? Is that you?"

Of course…that's the name she would remember. And that made me so sad. Samantha grabbed her mouth in surprise before drawing her sword. "How dare you address Princess Ruby with such a foul name!"

I reached up and forced her to lower her sword. "No…it's ok. That was…that was my name for ten years." I said as I tried to cover my fluffed up face. I stepped up to Ashana, who still stood by the door, not moving one inch. "Ashana?" When she raised her head to look at me, I knew it was her. Her hair was so much longer now that I almost couldn't believe it. But it was her alright. She was dressed in monk robes. I ran up to her and hugged her. "I missed you so much!" I cried to her.

"You abandoned me." She replied, her voice monotone and without any emotion in it.

"No I didn't. You left for a week…and you didn't come back." I said to her. "And then I met some people and they took me in, fed me, helped clothe me." I hugged her closer. "I thought you weren't coming back."

She gingerly placed her arms around my back and started hugging me in return. "I was…scared. When I came back to the cave…you weren't there. I felt your energy trail leaving the cave so I followed it to Dawnstar. I met Erandur…he did the same. He clothed me and fed me. I stayed here until I could find you. Erandur is my caretaker now." She looked over at Erandur. "He wanted someone emotionless to be around him to keep him from going crazy because he was exposed to crazy people." She pulled away and I could see her blood-red eyes scanning me. "He was talking about you…wasn't he?"

Erandur shook his head. "Not her. She was the sanest of them all." He walked up to Ashana, rubbing her on her head. She stared dispassionately at him. I guess I should explain this too. Ashana…well, the slaves broke her. I mean really broke her. She cried for a couple months and after being handled a lot, she stopped crying, she stopped expressing emotions altogether. She still felt some minor emotions but she couldn't feel anything too strongly. When she said she was scared…I'm guessing she meant she was mildly worried. When she said she liked something, it caught her interest. Her monotone voice and dispassionate eyes were a turnoff for slavers too. She depressed them so they just made her make healing potions and heal tired customers that wanted a 'round two' with us. She was my only friend and she was the one that taught me shamanism, mostly using crystals to block out my trauma after being forced to live up to my old name.

I looked at Samantha and then at Ashana. And that's when I thought of it. "Hey…Ashana. I'm thinking of starting up a guild. The Crimson Blades. It's a guild built on researching shamanism and helping people out using our shamanic powers. Feel like…"

"Yes, I would love to." She replied dispassionately, hugging me slowly, like the very act may hurt her. "I have missed you, Dick-licker. Never leave my side." And that's when I heard her sniffling voice. Was she crying? That was a first.

Samantha smiled as she looked at me. She held up her thumb and winked. "We have our third founder." She looked at the tower. "That is…if we all survive." I looked at the temple too. Yeah…I wasn't too sure about this, but this was our first quest. It couldn't be too bad…right?

* * *

**Cearbhail**:

_So, that was the second chapter, and we finally get to meet Ashana. I wasn't sure how I was going to explain her absence from the storyline but as luck would have it, the answer lied right before me: Nightcaller Temple, where Ruby first made her real appearance as a character. And yes, while Ashana is mentally on lock-down...and no that will never fully resolve itself, she will be a great member of this storyline I'm sure. Between Ruby, the overzealous Samantha, and the quiet emotionless Ashana, I think I have a good team in the making. Next chapter, things get pretty intense...I hope. All depends on my fingers after all, but...here's to hoping, right?  
_


	3. The Rift

**Cearbhail**:

___This chapter is pretty short, but I like it. You get to know the characters a bit better...and you learn a lot of stuff. Sort of important, but really...eh.  
_

___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
_

* * *

_Dear diary,_

_So much has happened today that I had to write another entry for today. Well…Asger got involved with some questline that's taking him to Solstheim. He's going to help Lord Neloth fight some guy who's causing problems. I'm guessing this Miraak is like the big bad guy. Man…I wish I could go with him and help but…it turns out I'm needed here as well. Farengar and Erandur from Dawnstar need my help with some rift that's opened up in Nightcaller Temple. So, Samantha went with me to help me out. It's our first official quest as a guild…just the two of us at the time. But…as soon as we got there, I met Ashana. She's here! I was so happy, and she…well…she hugged me. That pretty much means that she was thrilled to death. She's joining the guild. It's official: We are the Crimson Blades. And this is our first quest. Closing some portal. Can't be that hard, right? Not for two shamans and a nightblade. It's kind of our thing._

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm._

_…_

The inside of the temple looked smaller than I remember it, and cleaner. All the cobwebs were wiped away, and the inside was well-lit. The inside of the temple was a small shrine built for Mara, the goddess of love. Behind some Illusion wall was the actual temple for the Daedra woman. And that was a different story. Erandur must have left it alone this whole time, because it was still dank, still covered in cobwebs, but now it was filled with other stuff. And it was the first real welcome to what we'd be facing inside. We hadn't gone inside the actual temple yet, but I could feel their power from the sanctuary of Mara's shrine.

"So…they can't leave the temple?" I asked Erandur.

He shook his head. "They don't venture far from the rift in the temple, but not one has gone past the wall."

Ashana looked at me. "They are made up of the same energy as Aetherius. I believe they are actual parasites from Aetherius that absorb magicka. And when you fill them with too much magicka they explode with a holy fire." She said to me as she walked up to the door. "You have grown pretty strong, Dick-licker. Can you please go first? I'm scared."

I sighed as I walked past her. "My name is Ruby." I said to her. "Ok?"

She nodded. "I understand, Ruby."

I reached for my diamond sword, unsheathing it as I walked through the illusionary wall. I looked around for any signs of movement, or anything for that matter. I didn't see anything. So, I stepped further into the ruin, Samantha and Ashana on my back. "I don't see anything." I said out loud. "Ok, Blades…get ready." I brought my diamond katana up as I advanced into the temple. Samantha raised her diamond Imperial style broadsword. Ashana raised her hands and white magicka started glowing off them. We walked quietly, slowly, and carefully into the room. Farengar traveled behind the three of us, carrying the Staff of Magnus with him. Erandur was behind him.

As we came up to the actual interior, I stepped up to the giant wall where we could see the bottom floor underneath us. I could see the giant white swirling ball of energy. It didn't seem like it was made up of magicka though. I looked back at Farengar and waved him up. He walked up and looked down to where I was pointing. "There…see that?" I looked at him and he nodded. "Think you can blast it from here and close it?"

He shook his head. "We don't know what that will do, Ruby." He looked at me. "I might just be giving it fuel to grow bigger. We need to investigate it first." I sighed when he said that. Of course he'd want to make this difficult.

"Fine…we'll do it." I said as I brought my sword back up and taking the front of the formation. Why oh why would I think that this quest could be handled so easily? Of course, it probably was as simple as that…blow up the rift with the staff. That sounded easy. And as we came up to the ramp leading down, I heard something. It was like hissing. I poked my head into the room and there it was. A single floating orb of…something. I walked into the room, signaling everyone to stay back. I'm cursed…I shouldn't drag others down with me. I'm strong…this thing has nothing on me.

I walked up to the orb. It danced around the center of the ceiling like it didn't even notice me. I looked at it closely. It was like a small orb of energy, but it had a small mouth with two triangular eyes. Hmm… they looked like the jack-o'-lanterns we used for Samhain, an ancient holiday that only shamans and other old magicka practitioners really cared about anymore. I reached out for the orb, and summoned what little ability I have with magicka that I had. The orb turned right for me and started feeding off the magicka on my finger. And that's when I felt it…the razor-tearing pull of the thing as it ate my aura.

I tore my finger away, my entire hand numb from it. That orb started coming after me, hungry now. I could see a light orange fire glowing in its eyes. It flew right up to me, landing on my chest. I tried to throw it off, but it was already 'biting' into my aura. I felt the tear from my body as it started sucking my soul away from me. I tried to summon more magicka, hoping to offensively attack it. It only fed off me that much faster. And within a few seconds I was feeling drained. Good thing Samantha had my back.

"Lord of Unbridled Storms, lend me thine holy Light and thine holy air-sundering booms. Let me strike my enemies down with your Lightning." Shock magicka started roaring over her body, stronger than I'd seen in anyone. It soared up her fingers and she directed at me. "Spare my allies your mighty fury, but spare not my enemies. Roar! Judgment Spark!" The lightning rolled off her fingers, crashing over me. I didn't feel a thing other than the overwhelming energy soaring through me. The little soul-sucker wasn't so lucky though. It squealed out and popped. It didn't take too much…it just popped. And it had an offensive force that threw me back. I crashed into the wall with surprising force. When I noticed the thing was gone, it felt like there was a hole in my chest. I reached down to see that I hadn't been hurt at all. There was no mark to indicate that I had been touched. But…it felt like a giant hole had been tore away from me. And I was struggling to stand up.

"Are you ok?" Samantha asked as she walked up. She ran her hand across my chest. "Your…aura's been broken? How is that possible?" She looked at me and then at Ashana. She looked up at me. "What happened?"

"I was curious to see what they would do if I offered it some magicka. It ate it right off my hand…and took my aura with it. And then it wanted to eat more of me. I can feel it…like there's a hole in me."

Erandur nodded. "That's how I feel. It's been getting better, so I think it heals over time."

I nodded. "Either way…we can't let those things touch us. Long distance spells only." I looked at them. "Got it?" They both nodded. I started to stand up from the wall. I led us down the stairs. I half-struggled to keep myself on my feet. As we got down to the next room…I heard more hissing. I poked my head in, seeing several more of those orbs. I sighed. "Nine more of those things. Who's got this?"

Samantha nodded, shouldering past me. "Don't worry, Princess. I totally got this." She closed her eyes in thought. She slid her sword in her sheath and pulled out a wand. She waved it in the air. "Fire, Frost, Aedric, Daedric, Shock, and Air…" She drew a pentagram in the air, the sigils for each symbol filling in the slots, air sitting in the middle. The pentagram formed at her feet, solidifying into a circle. It hummed with magicka. Her hair started floating as the magicka rushed out of the circle she had summoned. The orbs started moving towards her. "From the fiery pits of Red Mountain, I summon the flowing magma." The circle started turning red. I started pushing people back. We needed to be clear of this before it happened. I know we have shields from her, but we didn't need to push their strength. As the orbs gathered closer Samantha waved her wand. "Volcanic Eruption!" She yelled and the fire magicka from her circle roared out of the circle like a pit to Oblivion just exploded underneath her, flooding up to all the orbs circling her. Heck…it covered the whole room. The fire magicka covered everything for a few seconds. When the fires faded away, the orbs hissed out in agony as they spiritually melted. They exploded lightly one by one. Samantha dropped her circle and looked back at us. "That was a first. I never thought it would work."

I walked up to her. "That was awesome! Great job!" I hugged her and she patted me on the back.

"Thanks for the praise, but _that_ was luck." She looked away. "I found out the secrets to incantations. Just say whatever you need with intention of what you want done. It takes training to get it right, though. Well that, an evocation circle, and an understanding of how to say it correctly. I'm just glad it worked." She walked past me. "We should continue on forward before more appear." And continue on we did. Samantha started lagging behind as we continued down through the rest of the rooms. Ashana lagged back as well, performing some healing magicka on Samantha. I didn't notice it, but she looked pretty drained from that one spell. Evocation and incantations drained her magicka reserves, even if she doesn't have to charge up the spell to do it. The magic was in her voice and in her intention. That was her gift…an actual gift for gab. Sure, she had actual spells too, but those were not her specialty. It took less energy and time from her to do incantations and evocations than it did to actually summon up the humungous waves of fire that washed over the room. If I had done that…I'd be on the floor.

We walked down a staircase with a few orbs lingering around. I unsheathed my katana and focused my energy into it. It received my energy, and started pushing out strong vibrations that translated into energy itself. My diamond katana started glowing with pure shamanic energy. The orbs turned to feed off me. I took a deep breath and let my speed and natural agility speak for itself. I pushed off the floor, flying up to the ceiling. I sliced through one of the orbs as I flew up. My blade passed right through it and it exploded halfway through. Good…it works to kill them with these blades. I wonder if regular metal blades would cut through them. I didn't see why not. The other two orbs came up and I let myself fall from the ceiling. I slashed with my sword at both of them. They popped as I fell through them, landing on the ground without a fur out of place. I performed chiburi with my blade, sheathing it as I stood up.

I looked back at Samantha. "And that's how it's done." I said with humor and pride in my voice. She pointed behind me and I turned my head around. The rest of the way through the hall was just filled with hundreds of them. I growled as I unsheathed my sword.

"Oh great." They weren't loitering either. They were coming right for us. "Time to show me what you can do, Sammy."

She pushed up next to me. She unsheathed her own diamond blade. "I may not beat you in sparring, but I'll show you up, Ruby." She closed her eyes. "Lord of Time, slow the world for me as I cut these enemies down before me. Allow me to be but a blur to the eyes." And it worked. She blurred and started moving through the orbs like they were nothing. I could see and hear a lot of them popping. Jeez…I hadn't even started yet. I took a breath and tried to pop open my limiter. When I did, I felt a sharp pain pass through my body. I fell to my knees and my vision darkened. That hole in my aura was crying in pain and all my energy disappeared. Oh no… I can't break my limiter. The auric injury must have been interfering with it.

Several orbs were coming up to me. "Ruby…they're behind us!" Farengar said as he turned around and started spraying magicka everywhere. I looked up at the oncoming orbs, trying to will my body to move. It refused. I pushed off my legs anyway and all I got was on my side, crying out in pain. Samantha was still further down, passing through a wave of them. I looked up at the orb, trying to do something. Anything. Nothing came. One landed on my back, taking a bite. I felt it tear through my energy like several of my muscles had just ripped.

"I'll assist you." Ashana barely spoke from beside me. She just passed right past me with the grace of a dancer. She had gloves with two quartz crystals embedded into them. White energy had engulfed her hands like blades. She whirled right past me, slashing at the orbs with her hand energy blades. She swatted them away from me, cutting them and making them pop. Behind me, I heard massive explosions. They weren't popping like the ones up here. I looked back at Farengar. He was pushing with as much as he had at the orbs. They seemed to be absorbing his magicka and then exploding when it couldn't hold his magicka anymore. What was so different? Why could we make them pop and him not? Even when Samantha used her spell, they exploded lightly. What was so different?

When Ashana cleared the orbs away from me, she bent down to examine me. "Ruby…you've been injured." She announced passionlessly. "I will heal you." And she pulled out a quartz wand. She waved it over my aura and I could feel her stretching my aura and using it to cover the whole. It wasn't perfect, but the pain felt less…a lot less. She reached down to pull me up. I took her hand and she hulled me up to my feet.

I looked back at Farengar. He looked like he was on his last leg of defense. "Go help him fight. I'll go help Samantha." She nodded and activated her crystal energy blades. She ran past me to Farengar's defense. She started cutting the orbs down. They popped lightly. Good…so it wasn't the type of orbs…just…type of energy? I don't know. I'd have to study one of these to know for certain. I brought my blade up and tried this again. I took a deep breath and pushed my energy through my limiter. It felt weak but I felt it snap open. I was suddenly engulfed with energy and I passed it through my crystal blade. It took the energy, doubled it, and passed it through me again. The two of us in sync, I opened my eyes and pushed forward.

Images of the sword speaking to me flashed in my brain. The spirit within the sword, Dynama, showed me how I needed to be to pass through these orbs. And my hand pretty much did the rest. I started slashing. Waves of auric and crystal energy meshed into one streamed off my blade, slashing through the orbs like they were bubbles. The waves of energy kept flying past me, hitting more ahead of me. And within seconds I had cleared my half of the hallway. Samantha was down on her knee, catching her breath, her sword tip pushed into the stonework. I'd tell her that was bad for the tip…if the sword weren't made out diamonds and steel.

She looked at me, smiling. "How did you do that with your energy? Form it into an actual launching beam?"

I shrugged. "You know…one day my friend stole my crystals…somehow melted them down and then made me a blade out of them and gave it to me. I was angry with her so I went down to the river to swing away my rage and just…it happened. My feelings stimulated my auric energy and it fed into the sword. And then it fed back. I was one with the sword. And when I slashed, the energy building on the blade just rolled off…it left me tired for a couple days but it got easier." I reached down to pull her up. When she took my hand, I hulled her onto her feet. "Nowadays it's like your incantations…second nature."

"They are not second nature." She said as walked into the room. "I wish…but…" She looked back at me. "I'm still new to them. There are the traditional ones from the past that I know inside and out, but there are only a few that have survived the test of time. So, I need to be inventive if I wish to really use them correctly." She sighed. "And so far…it's been luck and maybe some natural insight that's gotten me this far."

"So…what are your incantations? Are they magicka or…" I wanted to know exactly her magic was made from.

She shook her head. "No…they're soulic." She looked back at me. "Before we knew anything about the elements of the planet, before we knew anything about magicka…we used soulic energy. Bards still use it. The power of the voice… sound familiar?" She looked at me. "Does a Thu'um use magicka?" I never thought about it. I wasn't a Shouter so I wouldn't even know if it did or not. She shook her head. "It does not. It comes from the power of your soul. It's a different energy…very old, highly unused. Almost forgotten." She looked down at the ground. "Incantations are like Thu'um only not in the dragon language. That and they sometimes require an evocation circle, which is a portal to my soul. The one you saw me draw was a portal leading to my soul: an elemental portal. It allowed me to turn my pure energy into any elemental force I required…and I required fire from Red Mountain. Imagine the visualization and realization that required of me spiritually to conjure that from my soul." She laughed. "That's why I thought it wouldn't work."

So…she used Soulic energy on the orbs. It wasn't magicka…something they could absorb. And I was using energy from crystals, which also wasn't magicka. But…they were eating my aura. An aura was the combination of our soulic body and the magicka flowing inside us. It was a thin line…the line drawn between the two energies. Half the time there wasn't a line, it was all the same. But whatever these orbs were…they knew where the line was. So, in order to beat these things successfully, we needed to sever them with energy that wasn't magicka. That could be tricky.

I thought about this while we clambered into the room where the rift was. Samantha stayed beside me, looking at me while I was contemplating the whole nature of these orbs. She nudged me, saying, "What's up? You've been quiet for like…a minute."

I shook my head. "Nothing, just…my energy is shamanic. It's pure energy that I use from my crystals. Ashana's energy is the same. Yours is soulic. Magicka makes these orbs bigger and more powerful. I'm beginning to wonder if these orbs are somehow made up of magicka. If so…could we kill them with regular weapons or would they have to be like ours?"

She shrugged and gestured to my bag. "Do you have a regular sword?"

I shook my head. "It's enchanted. And I'm curious to see if it would feed off of enchanted swords like it did my aura or Farengar's spells."

Ashana walked up to us, titling her head. "I do not know the answer to your question, Ruby. But I would like to remind you." She pointed to the rift. "We need to close this before more come out."

I nodded and walked up to the rift. There was a steady pulse of energy flying out of it, like a constant wind that buffeted you. I had to shield my eyes from both the spiritual wind and the brightness as I walked up to it. I closed my eyes and stuck my hand out. You think I would have learned the first time, but…I had to know for certain. As soon as my hand got close, I felt my entire hand just vanish, like it was torn away from me. I threw myself back, reaching for my hand. It was still there, untouched, but it was numb as heck. I couldn't even bend the fingers…there was no life to it. "Don't go near it…it feeds off of magicka too."

I looked at it closer. It wasn't a portal. It just looked like…a disturbance. A collection of magicka had grown in this one spot and it continued to grow until it imploded on itself. And that's why it was draining magicka, because it needed more to sustain its life. So…these orbs were probably scouts that were sent out to gather energy to bring back to this…white hole…this absence of life. It took magicka, and anything that entered it would be stripped of it. I wonder…if I stepped inside it, would I die? They couldn't eat souls…just magicka. My aura would be stripped away, but my soul would remain. I looked back at everyone. "I have a theory. If I walked into that thing…do you think it would kill me?"

Samantha held me down to the ground, saying, "Oh no…you are _not_ doing that, Princess."

Erandur crossed his arm. "You are just a suicidal cat, aren't you? Last time you were here you tried the same crap."

I shrugged. "Hey! I didn't try to do anything of the sort! I was helping Dawnstar. No one else would take the stupid potion."

Ashana walked past us up to the rift. Before we could stop her, she walked right into the thing. And she screamed like her whole body had been stripped clean and fell to the floor. I pushed Samantha off me and rushed to the rift. She held me back down. "Oh no you don't!" She wrestled me back to the floor. "We already lost one…" Her voice trailed off, her eyes glued in wonder at the hole. I looked back up at the rift to see Ashana standing up. She was lifted off her feet, floating in the orb. She took a deep breath and the hole just collapsed into a small ball in Ashana's hands. It thumped with nasty pulses and she let it go. When she released the rift, it exploded outwards. We all ducked and grabbed our heads as it exploded all around us. And when the whole thing was done, the rift was gone. It felt like it had never even been here.

I looked for Ashana, and she was lying on the floor. I didn't know if she was alive or dead, but I had to find out. I pushed off Samantha and ran up to Ashana, sliding down on my knees to check her pulse for…anything. Samantha and Erandur were right next to me in a heartbeat. I found a regular pulse in her neck. Thank Talos…she's alive. So I reached down and slapped her face lightly a few times. Her eyes barely opened and she looked up at me. She didn't say anything. She just closed her eyes. I'm guessing her whole body was numb…like my right hand was. I reached down to lift her up, but Erandur was ahead of me.

"Wait!" He said, running his hand across her. "This is remarkable…she doesn't have an aura anymore."

"I never did." She replied through her still mouth. "I lost my aura back when I was a slave. The aura is stimulated by emotions, by passions…and my aura was torn from me. I destroyed it to keep myself from feeling anything. Ruby used to be name-less. I became soul-less. No heart…no emotions…no aura. I was always a shaman so I had no magicka in my body. It was always soulic energy. Now I have none. So, I compensate with crystals…like Ruby…only I don't feed into them, just draw off them instead. Ruby required someone without an aura to enter the rift. I have a weak aura…so I knew I could do it. It hurt…whatever remained of my soul's heart was torn from me…inside and out. I thought I could feel happiness at seeing my friend…" She glanced up at me. "now I just feel…empty."

Farengar walked up, his hand glowing with magicka. "We should be able to restore your aura." He gasped as he stepped back. "I…we can't do this here. We need a resonator healing station."

I sighed. "Our guild has one. I made sure just in case something like this happened in the future." Farengar heaved Ashana onto his back and he started carrying her away. "I'll get her there as fast as I can. You guys just try to keep up." I looked at Samantha. I knew I could run faster than Farengar, and she knew she could too. At least…we thought we could. By the time we looked up at him…he was already gone. What the? I didn't even hear him step.

Erandur looked at me and sighed. "You need to hurry. I'll visit when I can. Winterhold, right?" I nodded. "Go now…I'll be along shortly."

* * *

**Cearbhail**:

_So, the semi-truth behind Ashana's emotions is coming to light. She actually had to lock up her soul behind a mental barrier to survive her years of being a slave. She's more of a robot than a person, with the exception that she truly cares for her friends and will put herself in danger at a second's notice to help them. Much like walking into a rift and almost dying without a second thought. She lacks the fear required to make that hesitation. What she doesn't lack is the bravery. It's selective like that...and it's weird but...I guess it's just what she chose to get rid of. As we go more into the story, you'll learn more about their pasts and how they ended up the way they did. I haven't really thought up one for Samantha yet, but I'm doubting it will be a sad past. I think Ruby and Ashana make up the sad past quota for this arc.  
_


	4. Adularia Hall

**Cearbhail**:

___I got stuck on this for a couple days. I mean...things slow down and then it's all about what you really want from this story, you know? I mean, the quest was a one pager. I thought about doing a couple pages, but what would that accomplish? It's a quest, not a questline. but anyway, they're back and there were a couple several ways I thought about doing this one. I'm still not sure about the one I chose, but I guess it gave me more to do with the chapter. otherwise, it would have been shorter.  
_

___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
_

* * *

_Dear diary,_

_Yesterday was something. Samantha and I went on our first quest to investigate a rift that had opened up inside Nightcaller Temple. We met my old friend Ashana and the three of us, Erandur, and Farengar went inside the temple to investigate the rift. We ran into this magicka-sucking orbs that actually could eat our magicka-laden auras, crippling us. We managed to take them out without too much effort and we found ourselves standing at the rift. It turned out to be a white hole created from overcharged magicka that had gathered and collapsed into itself, opening a condensing portal thing that had to collect more magicka to continue sustaining its collapsing existence. I don't know what would happen if it did collapse, but I'm guessing it would had been what happened when Ashana walked inside it._

_Yeah, she walked inside the white hole. And it made her pass out. And then she stood up while unconscious and actually managed to make the white hole collapse and disperse without much of an explosion. I don't know what it would have done if we hadn't been there to handle it. And I don't know how we're going to handle any more that may show up. I'm not letting my friend do that twice. She might die next time. This white hole consumed only magicka…the next one may collect soulic energy too. And if that happens, she'll die. She got lucky last time. And now she's in the named Adularia Hall sitting on our healing table. Adularia Hall is the name of our guildhall. It just seems redundant to name it the 'Crimson Guildhall', so we used the name of a journeying stone…a stone of guidance: adularia._

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm._

_…_

I hadn't left the healing room since we got here. Farengar actually used a teleportation spell to get Ashana here. He couldn't really take more than one person with him when he teleported though. So, that's why he left us behind at the temple. He put her on the table, which I had prepared a year ago for crystal healing. I wasn't good at Restoration magicka, but I could use the vibrational frequency of certain crystals to transform my energy into a healing one. And I had been using it this whole time to help heal her spiritual wounds. It was hard to fix her though. She had no aura to repair. Her 'aura' was comprised of just soulic energy. And I was wrong…that thing completely ate her aura…it just didn't penetrate the skin. So…it ate just pure energy, regardless of where it came from. It just wasn't able to travel through our bodies. That was a lucky break for Ashana, but her body wasn't going to be able to move until her aura was recovered.

Since I couldn't a thing to help to help her, I just set some come healing crystals into a six-star pattern in the healing tubes that surrounded the healing bed made up of quartz. The vibrations from the crystals traveled through the Dwemer metallic tubes, holding the vibrations like it was nothing. The vibrations traveled through the tubes into the bed, where all six tubes connected to the large flat quartz bed, where Ashana now lied. The quartz bed was programmed to take the vibrations and double their frequency output, making the bed take whatever form of energy I needed. And I had was used the bed to repair Ashana's aura. And it would keep doing that until I needed to switch out the crystals. It was a marvelous design that Farengar helped me design last year. And it was only one of our seven healing stations in our healing room.

Don't be fooled. This guildhall is pretty big. It could be its own getaway retreat and a college at the same time. Besides the healing room, we had a few other rooms, while having several sleeping chambers upstairs, capable of housing near 30 people. Yeah…I paid for a mansion. I had enough saved up gold to make it as big as I wanted. It was almost as big as the castle Asger had constructed. Our mansion had a giant library that Samantha had helped put together with some of the oldest texts that talked about shamanic rituals, crystals, plants, metals; everything we could ever need to know. We even had books on astrology and some other thing like palmistry, clairvoyance, and alternate dimensions. It was a pretty good library. Besides the library we had a small armory, a couple meditation chambers, enchanting tables, alchemy labs, and an indoor pool. Oh… and a hot tub. I hoped to add a workout room soon. Just to make it more like a retreat. The only thing this mansion really needed was the capability to house my crystal spirits. If I could create a spectral area within the guild, I wouldn't have to keep all these spirits in my limited bag. I hoped to find out the secret soon.

"How's the girl?" Samantha asked as she walked into the room. She wasn't wearing her armor anymore, but her leather battle suit. She walked up to me, looking at Ashana. Ashana hadn't moved since I got here. I heard her moan from time to time and I saw her chest rising and falling as she slept. That was good; she was alive. But…it had to be murder to be unable to actually move her body. At least I got her chest healed so that she _could_ breathe. For a couple hours when we first started healing her we had to pound on her chest and breathe for her until we got that part of her aura restored. Now she could breathe on her own. Soon enough, she'll be able to move her arms and legs. I don't know how long until she has finer motor control of her fingers. She might need physical therapy.

I rose from my seat and ran my hand over her body. I tried to sense her aura. I could feel some minor spiritual threads starting to form over her chakras. That was a good start. They were barely branching out to her arms and legs. She looked really peaceful in her comatose state, but I guess if you couldn't move a muscle, even intense pain would look peaceful. "Give her a couple days and she'll be beginning her therapy." I looked up at Samantha. She looked exhausted. As far as I had known, she hadn't slept since we got back. Neither had I. "You don't have to wait here with me. Don't you have training with Rikke?"

She looked at me, smirking. "Well…this is our guildmate…it would be wrong of me to just ditch her when she needs us." She sat down next to me. "Besides…I'm sure Commander Rikke can get along just fine without me for one training session." I could see the exhaustion in her face though. I just think she wouldn't be capable of doing any training even if she wanted to. We sat there looking at Ashana while she lied there motionless for a few minutes before Sam looked over at me. "What are we going to do if she doesn't recover?"

"She'll recover." I didn't hesitate in telling her. "I've been monitoring her spiritual vitals. She's making a recovery." I looked back over at Samantha. She looked like she was ready to pass out. "Aren't you tired? You should rest."

Samantha stood up and started walking away. "If her vital are good, that's good enough for me. I'm getting some food for when she wakes up. What does she like?"

I shrugged. I guess Sam wanted to avoid resting. "She doesn't have favorite food. But…she did eat a lot of honey when we were slaves. And it was the thing she left the cave to look for." That's why I hated I was allergic to honey. Every time I ate it, it reminded me of the friend I lost. But…she was here now. Well…sort of here.

Samantha nodded, heading out the door. "I'll get going then. I need to give my report to Commander Rikke about what we encountered in Nightcaller Temple. Oh…and don't forget to take a few hours on the healing slab too. You have some auric holes if I recall correctly." I looked down at my right hand. I still couldn't move it. I had stuck it inside the rift to see if it would hurt me. It ripped my aura away from my hand, paralyzing it instantly. I was going to need some physical therapy as well to make a full recovery from this. Healing my numbed hand's aura would have to come first. It was slowly rolling back in, so I didn't have to worry about it.

"I'll make sure to stick it in the elixir dome for a few minutes." I replied to her. "What about you? I didn't see you in the fight until you were taking a knee? Did you get sucked on too?"

Samantha crossed her arms and smiled. "I got a few hits, yes. They're minor and I'll deal with them later." She patted her back. "They got me a few times on the back plate. Not sure if the crystal armor protected me or if they just don't bite as hard as you screamed they did." She stuck her tongue at me, chuckling a bit to make sure I understood she was joking with me. It's hard to tell with her sometimes, but she is my friend so I shouldn't expect her to insult me for real.

Samantha turned to leave again. I didn't want to leave Ashana, but I needed someone to go get Lydia. "Can you go get my dad for me before you leave?" Dad was in this building. He'd been spending most of his time in the kitchen…oh yeah…that's another place we have. We also have a bardic entertainment center filled with lutes, flutes, drums, and bass lutes. And a couple newer instruments I didn't learn the names of yet.

She nodded and left the room. "You got it Princess. Maybe he'll have some coffee prepared."

I waited next to Ashana the whole time I waited for dad to come. My own exhaustion was starting to pull down on me. Staying around a room watching someone sleep for 20 hours will tire you out. "Ashana, you can hear me, right?" She didn't respond. "Figures…huh? We finally end back up in each other's' lives and you end up partially comatose. And we've always been complete opposites. You're emotionless, I'm energetic…maybe annoying at times." I sat down in my chair, leaning forward. "Well…less energetic these days." I rubbed the back of my neck. I don't know exactly where all that energy went. Maybe that whole going to Hammerfell thing as a slave dried that up. But…it's not like I wasn't still the same person, right? "I almost didn't leave that cave, you know. I thought it would be like abandoning you…I didn't know if you were coming back or not. And these guys…they seemed nice. I didn't want to be alone. And it turns out that you did come back…and it must have been right after I left too. You must have felt betrayed…scared…alone. All the things I felt when I thought you weren't coming back. But…I should tell you sometime just how much stuff I got into while I was out with Asger and Lydia. I met so many new people, learned about bardic combat…cooking…being a real Khajiit. Found a boyfriend…got engaged to him. Someday have cute little mix-breed Ka'Po'Tun with him…I can't wait. And you'll be the 'fun' aunt that comes to visit, hopefully."

I half expected her to answer me but she didn't. I patted her on the hand and stood up as I heard dad walk into the room. "Princess Ruby called for M'aiq?" He was carrying a cup of coffee with them. Too bad I didn't drink that stuff. Last time I drank it I flipped out and nearly destroyed the castle. Too much energy for one Khajiit to have.

I nodded to him. "Can you go tell Lydia I'm back? I don't want to leave this room until my friend is awake, and I'm sure Lydia wants to know how the mission went." He nodded and left the room without a word. I sat back down on my seat, looking at my numbed hand. I had only lost my hand…and it was simply the most painful experience I had thrown at me. How would have I felt if my entire body had been ripped from me at the same second? Ashana had to go through that…and she did it without thinking. I tried to make a fist but my hand barely twitched with the effort. And all I got was a small headache from even trying and breathless. I looked back at Ashana. "I can't imagine the stress or pain you must be in right now…not being able to move your body. Are you even conscious at this point?"

I started down at her but she didn't move. I could see her eyes flittering around behind her eyelids though. Was she dreaming then? That's when the crystals sitting in the healing star started glowing. Lights started shimmering off the crystals, energy lifting off them like dust caught in the sunlight in a dark room. They rolled over Ashana and started forming into her image. The image shifted, looking at me. The image blinked and it rose from the bed, sitting and facing towards me, while the actual Ashana continued lying on the bed. It looked just like Ashana…if she were a collection of crystal dust. "Ruby…" I felt/heard vibrations of the crystals rolling through the air that had somehow translated into words inside my head. It rested an astral hand on me, and I felt the reassuring healing energy from the active crystals. "Rest…" It replied. It gestured to itself. "Fine…" And the dust just dispersed, leaving me alone with a dumb expression on my face.

I looked back down at Ashana. "D-did…did you do that?" Of course she didn't answer but I guess that was the best I was going to get. I face-palmed my forehead, trying to hide behind a laugh as I stood up. "Ok…you win. I'll go heal my hand. You just…you keep resting. Ok?" The crystals hummed an answer that I took to be a positive response. I patted her on her shoulder as rose to my feet. I walked over to one of the other healing slabs. I had three of them set up for us once we got back from the temple. Knowing the types of wounds we encountered, I knew which healing crystals we needed. So, I lied down on the quartz bed and activated the healing process. I felt the humming of auric healing waves pass through me. I closed my eyes. I just focused on the rhythmic pulsing of healing energy passing through me and somewhere within a few seconds my exhaustion finally took me. I don't know how long I lied there before Lydia waked into the room.

"You've been back for two days now and you've yet to visit me?" She asked from the doorway. Her sudden call from the entranceway to the infirmary caused me to almost jump out of my bed. When she saw me on the bed, she grabbed her mouth and rushed over to me. "Are you hurt? Do you need a healer?"

I chuckled as I sat up. "I _am_ a healer…sort of." I glanced away at that statement. Not quite a priest, but…I know how to heal myself. That counts, right?

She crossed her arms. "Oh…in that case, thank you for all the times you healed us when we were injured…like when I broke my arm…or when Asger broke his legs…or…"

"Ok, ok…I get it." I stood up and hugged her. "I've been studying more into healing stuff…ok? I figured it would be a good thing to have in our guildhall…a healing station. And this is it." I waved around the room. "What do you think?"

"I think you're still cursed." She replied. "M'aiq told me you came back yesterday. What have you been doing the whole time?"

"Yesterday…I just sent him off like…ten minutes ago." She looked at me like I was an idiot and so I looked around. The room looked more or less the same but Samantha was sleeping on one of the tables too, healing whatever wounds she got in the temple. I looked down at my right hand. I could feel out of it again. When I went to bend it, my fingers slowly started bending, but it quickly sped up. I clenched my hand, happy to be able to feel it. Good…that was fast. I looked up at Lydia. "Ok…what day is it?"

"16th Evening Star, Freedas, 13:45 in the afternoon." She crossed her arms. "And I'm guessing you lied down after sending M'aiq out to tell me you came back." I nodded. "Wow…you must have passed out. How was the quest? Tell me everything." I recounted my quest to her, telling her in detail that she would have enjoyed hearing. She stood there waiting patiently while I told her. When I finished, she just sighed before walking over to Ashana's bed. "I thought your friend was in critical care?"

"She is." I stood up from the table. I walked over to see that Ashana wasn't on the table. I wiped my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things. When I opened my eyes, she still wasn't on the table. But…I turned around and Samantha was resting on one. Ok…so…Ashana was able to walk then? "Ashana?" I called out, looking around for her.

Samantha snapped her head up, looking up at me with a partially-closed eye. "Mind keeping it down? Now that Ashana's up on her feet…I want to stay off mine for a few hours." She yawned and rolled on her side. She started snoring almost just as quickly. Ok…so Ashana was up and walking around and Samantha was letting herself sleep. That was good. I found myself shrugging and turning to face Lydia.

"And…these are my new guildmates." I shook my head. "Samantha, the dedicated smart-mouth, and the expressionless, emotionless, passionless Ashana."

Lydia patted me on my shoulder, smiling. "Ruby…don't insult me like that. Don't compare your friends to me like that." She pointed to the Samantha's bed. "Is your friend injured? Aren't those healing beds only for injured?"

That was a good point, and one I had brought up a few times to Samantha. I had found her down on her knees when I cleared half a hallway filled with those magicka-eating orbs. She looked like she was hiding some amount of pain while she tried to pick herself up. But those orbs…they had a nasty bite. And they didn't stop after one either. I had to come up with a name for them. Um…hmm… Ok, maybe later. I looked back at Lydia. "Well…once I find Ashana and make sure she's ok…the three of us will be coming over to fill out the paperwork."

"Ruby?" I heard Ashana call from the doorway. She was carrying a dish in a pan, wearing an apron over her monk robes. "I thought you would be hungry so I prepared some food." She did? And she was right…I was hungry. I walked up to the dish and took a sniff of it. "It's apple pie." She replied. That sounded good, so I took a piece and started eating it. And almost just as fast as I started eating it…I felt a tickle in my nose. And my throat started closing up.

"Is…is there honey in this?" I asked her.

She nodded. "It is my preferred substance. I wanted some of the pie as well…so I put a lot of honey in it."

"I'm allergic to honey!" I replied as I dropped the plate.

Her facial expression didn't change, nor did she appear worried…but she did bow in respect. "Oh? I had forgotten. My apologies." I couldn't blame her…it was the fierfeking curse. It had already hit me with honey with everything else in my grasp…of course it would use my friend to poison me with honey too. I turned away from her and tried to hold my nose as I felt my mucus levels rising. I managed to hold my sneeze. I refused to dirty this room with my snot. I would rather explode.

Lydia grabbed me and ushered me outside. "Don't worry, Ruby. Executing Ruby Evacuation Plan Cobra." As soon as I exited the doors of my guild, I let it go. I snot Thu'umed the entranceway, hitting anything outside. And I heard a surprised scream that accompanied it. Standing on the other side of my snot Thu'um was Commander Rikke, and she did not look happy at being hit. She stood there with a blank stare on her green and yellow colored face.

"I…" She took one surprised look at me and then turned around to leave. She didn't even finish her thought…she just left.

I looked up at Lydia. "What do you think she wanted?"

"Probably wanted to see Sam. She is her apprentice…sort of." Lydia set me down. "Not like she can have an apprentice, being a Commander, and Hadvar is her second-in-command. I'm guessing Samantha is like her pet project."

Ashana walked outside of the infirmary, still carrying the apple pie with her. "Ruby? Would you like another piece?"

I shook my head and turned to face her. "No…I'd rather not be sneezing the rest of the day. But thanks for the offer." She nodded and walked up to us. I decided now would be a good time to introduce her to Lydia. "Ashana…this is my mother, Lydia. Lydia, this is my old friend from the slave camp. Her name is Ashana."

Lydia nodded and turned to face her. She stuck out her hand for a handshake. "Nice to meet one of Ruby's friends." Ashana stared at Lydia's hand and then over to me. She didn't move from her spot.

"Ruby…she is incapable of being your mother." Ashana stated while staring at Lydia. "She is a Nord…you are a Khajiit. Khajiits are able to breed with other animal species like Argonians, as well as elves like Altmer…but they are incapable of reproducing offspring with humans. The mere concept that she was able to give birth to you is unacceptable."

Lydia sighed and turned to look at me. "Oh…you weren't making a joke. She really is a killjoy."

Ashana titled her head in confusion and then looked at me. "I'm a…killjoy?" She turned around to leave. "I am sorry you feel that way, Ruby."

I face-palmed and groaned. "I said you were expressionless…emotionless…and passionless. I did _not_ say 'killjoy', Ashana. That was Lydia's word, not mine."

Lydia turned and nodded to Ashana. "Sorry, but all that means to me is 'killjoy'. You seem ok though."

Ashana turned to face Lydia. She stood like that for a few minutes. Her expression never changed. She finally nodded and went back to the infirmary. "Ok, I accept your hidden apology." She looked back at me. "I will continue healing the rest of my…partial aura. And…" She looked at me with what appeared to be a hardened stare. It wasn't working, she still looked expressionless. "I do have passions, Ruby. And emotions…but they are subdued and limited. You should know this well enough."

"Sorry…" I announced, bowing to her. "I just needed a proper explanation for Lydia to know what you're like."

"It is fine." She replied. "Back to resting." She lied down on a bed.

I looked back at Lydia. "So…that's my friend. What'd you think?"

Lydia patted me on the shoulder. "I think I'm going to be out of Winterhold for a couple days and Cecilie needs a babysitter. Ruby? …"

I nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I get what you want."

"And when I come back, I'll approve your guild request form. Better start talking to them about what they want from this guild of yours." She turned to leave.

"But…where are you going anyway?" I called out to her as she climbed into a carriage.

She looked back at me, smiling. "It's kinda…well…a family reunion thing. Dad wants me to come visit the rest of the Gray-Manes and Battle-Borns. It was two years ago almost to the day that our families stopped our feud when the war ended. Dad wants me there to celebrate and to be honest…I need a couple days away from the castle."

"Why not take Cecilie with you?" I looked back at the castle.

Lydia stuck her head out her window, glaring at me. "And what if I get ambushed by bandits…or…what did you used to call them…" She tapped her chin in mock thought.

I sighed. "Mammoth riding monks?"

She nodded. "Yeah, those. Cecilie needs to stay here where some of our oldest most powerful friends can watch over her…and that's you right now. At least until backup arrives."

"Backup, what backup?" I asked and Lydia smiled. Just like that the carriage driver, some TAL soldier, cracked the whips and the horses started pulling them away. "Hey! Tell me! Who's coming over?" I didn't get an answer from her. It better not be who I think it is. Damn curse…it would have to be…wouldn't it.

* * *

**Cearbhail**:

_Anyone want to guess who the surprise visitor will be? Huh? Huh? is there ANYONE in the whole Chronicles series that Ruby cannot stand? That she just...hates? I have no idea...i have to look over it and find one. I guess Pantu...maybe. Or Ariel. Seeing her two years later? That might be funny.  
_


	5. Babette's past

**Cearbhail**:

___Ok, ok. This chapter isn't so good, I know, I know. It's a filler chapter really. Got some conversation, some comedy. You know...stuff. Babette's past is in here too, and Esbern's back. Oh, he's back. And you know...Ruby gets traumatized by seeing... um... you'll see.  
_

___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
_

* * *

_Dear diary,_

_It's the 19th of Evening Star. The weekend was…painful. Esbern came over to visit, and he brought Serana and Delphine with him. I must admit it was fun to have them watch over Cecilie for me, but I still did more than my fair share of babysitting. Esbern was here to set up his new guildhall for the actual Blades. Since the Dragonborn lives up here and isn't leaving anytime soon, Delphine figured it would be a good thing to move the Blades up too. Which…since I'm technically a member…Maleek and Brelyna too… both of which aren't here… my duties as a Blade have started interfering with my everyday life. Now, I have to get up, put on Khajiiti version of Blades armor, and help Delphine with all the chores. I did get to meet the new Blades members though: Jess, Hadvar's wife; Grub-Grub; and Brun. It's cool to see them again, but I'm even gladder that I don't have to maintain my Blade status. I'm a new type of blade… a Crimson Blade. We need a nickname, something else. I don't want to call my comrades 'Blades'. It was a slip of the tongue earlier, but we need a new name for our members. I'll think of it today._

_Oh, I need to go. Cecilie is running around the hallway without her diaper again._

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm._

_…_

I walked to the door leading to the hallway to see an entire legion of maids chasing Cecilie as she bolted for the door leading to the courtroom, laughing as she sprinted through the hallway. One of the maids was close to catching her, but a pot popped out of nowhere, smacking her in the face hard enough to make her fall down. Cecilie laughed as she continued running around the castle. I'll say this for my little sister… there was never a dull moment around with her. I shook my head as I watched the maids chase after little Cecilie. I was a little relieved to know that the girl that had come back in time to attempt to save the world was still a normal girl that messed with her maids. I didn't even know what to expect from her when she was born, but I didn't expect her to take off her diaper and run through the halls. I expected more for her to sit to a chess game and defeat the 90 year-old champion in three moves.

"Freedom!" She screamed as she waved her new diaper over her head, disappearing around the corner.

I shook my head and walked out of my room. I better go chase after her too. Who knows what she'll do now that she can use fire magicka. Oh yeah…she's already awakening her mage powers. She enjoys setting people's pants on fire when she thinks they're lying to her. I started following the waves of irritated maids. It led me to the courtroom where they all stood in a circle around what I assumed was Cecilie. "Thank you for retrieving her." Helga, our oldest and most respected maid, bowed to whoever was in the middle of them.

"Oh, it's no problem. She's a really old friend of mine." I knew that voice. That was Babette. So, I walked through the maids, pushing them aside. Indeed, in the middle of the gaggle of maids was the tiny eleven year-old vampire, still dressed in her crimson vampire armor. When she saw me, she had to look up. "Wow…" She nodded. "You, wow you got tall."

I can't believe I actually had to look down. Last time I saw her, two years ago, I was just a little taller than her, by about a few inches. Now, I was about the size of a normal adult, so she came up to my chest. "Babette? What brings you here?"

She hugged Cecilie close to her, pouting. "Seeing my best friend." She looked down at Cecilie. "I've come to a decision." She said, looking up at me. "When Cecilie turns eleven…I'm going to get rid of my vampirism. That way…I'll get to grow up and we'll be best friends and I won't have to see her die while I remain eternally young. Cecilie…I've known her for over 200 years now. She's my oldest friend…and she's just over a year old. It would be sad if I still outlived her; to have to see this face grow old without me…to move onto her afterlife while I lingered like a god. So…I'm going to do it. I'm getting rid of this eternal curse. I've lived a good life…met a bunch of great friends. It's time." She nodded. "My old friend, Nexa, once told me that I had a choice of when my life ended, and who I would end it with. I'm choosing you guys. I can't bear the thought of outliving you lot…not unless I make it past my wonder years first."

Wow, that was quite the speech. I crossed my arms. "Ok, so does this mean you're going to try seducing my Maleek then?"

She looked up at me, surprise in her eyes. "What? I'm not into Maleek. He's like…ok…" She gestured to Cecilie in her arms. "You see how Cecilie is running around without her diaper?" I nodded. "Well…Maleek did the same thing when he was her age, and I was his babysitter. He'd make me chase him around the Sanctuary. He'd pull on my hair; he'd spit in my face; he'd pee on me every time I changed him; and every time I had to feed him…let's just say that food rarely ever made it in his mouth. There is nothing on this planet that would make me forget that and grow feelings for him. He's like…well…" She shrugged. "I still think of him as a baby brother, more than anything. You're safe; I won't try to steal your man."

"So…since you are so good with children, and since you really want to be around Cecilie…would you mind babysitting her for me?" I asked Babette.

She smiled and hugged Cecilie close to her. "Sure, that sounds like fun."

I looked back at her. "How long are you planning on staying?"

She looked up at me. "Until I die from old age." She looked back down at Cecilie and bounced her on her knee. She looked back up at me, smiling. "I was joking. I'm waiting until Lydia gets back from her family reunion. I'm… well… have you heard from Maleek lately?" I shook my head. I hadn't heard anything from Maleek since he started his war. I had no idea what was going on. From Babette's frown, I'm guessing it's not good. "It's not good. He isn't making as much progress as he would have liked. The entire Sanctuary is moving to assist him…and that means I'm leaving too. I just wanted to see my bestie before I left." She hugged Cecilie again before looking up at me. "Are…are you going to come join us?"

I shook my head. "Maleek doesn't want me in Black Marsh. Something about poisonous things killing me." If it weren't for the fact that Maleek would be too worried about me getting poked by something that could kill me, I would go to Black Marsh in a second. He had enough to think about; he didn't need me dying of some poisonous gas.

She nodded. "I can understand that. Well…I'm a vampire so all those poisons won't work on me. I could turn _you_ into a vampire and _we_ could go down together and help. And then when we got back you could get rid of the disease yourself."

I shook my head. "As tempting as it sounds to give me a legitimate reason to wear tight leather and grow wings, I'd rather stay living."

She shrugged. "Oh well. Not like you're missing anything anyway. Sunlight becomes painful, I sleep more, and when I have to take a shit, it's a giant blood clot instead of crap. Oh…and there's always this taste of iron in your mouth. And don't get me started having to taste other people's blood. You know how many guys I've sucked on that had AIDS? It's disgusting…and it tastes like monkeys. Why it tastes like monkeys I'll never know." She shrugged. "And then you meet the diabetics. It's hard to suck that out of them…and it's so fatty. I swear I gain six pounds just off one feeding. And I have a hankering for cake that just won't go away."

I looked away from Babette while she started playing with Cecilie. Cecilie laughed as Babette started tickling her. "So…is she what you expected?"

She looked up at me. "Honestly?" I nodded. "Yeah." She looked down at Cecilie. "I've lived a long time…seen all sorts of heroes start off as drooling poop-flinging strippers. The fact that she can talk as well as she can just reaffirms what I already know. She's the true hero in this family."

I crouched down, sitting in a seiza. "I don't know what I expected from her. But from how she was when I met her when she was eleven…she looked so serious, so…informed. And then I look down at her." Cecilie was busy stuffing her foot in her mouth, cooing happily. "And I think…how on nirn did _she_ turn into that?"

Babette looked up at me. "I met her when she was sixteen, so I can't say what she was like at eleven. She had saved me from a vampire lord that was trying to take me hostage. I don't know where she came from, but she saved me and drove off the vampires. But she wasn't able to keep me from changing. She helped me with the transition to becoming a vile creature that my grandfather would have killed on the spot and told me about her past. She told me about the Councilor of the Aldmeri Dominion and the things he would do. Cecilie left not too long after, saying something about going to some resort for a vacation. And when she left, I went to look for this Councilor. I had lived in hiding during the Aedra War, only coming out of the smoldering ruins of Cheydinhal after a surprise ambush ravaged what remained of our town. I was one of the only survivors, and that was because I was already dead…you know…vampire." She shrugged. "I met an Argonian heading to Black Marsh. When she met me, she told me I shouldn't be on my own. She let me travel with her. She turned out to be the Princess of Argonia. We became friends, and I helped her take back her home."

"So…going back to Black Marsh should be easy then?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Yup. When we retook the hidden town of Lilmoth, I fought the Councilor that was going to destroy Tamriel, while Nexa took on Yuvenni. I got a grazing blow on the Councilor, scoring him right in the neck with my fangs. I was going to drain him dry. He teleported away before I could finish, and then I helped Nexa with Yuvenni. We won, and she became Queen of Argonia. I already helped the princess before…and I just sort of stuck with the family for a couple generations. How do you think I know Veezara, and babysat Maleek? Why do you think I'm such a great friend of the family? I'm like their personal bodyguard. Nexa…she was my first friend after Cecilie left. She took good care of me, and in respect, I take good care of her children." She looked away. "Well, I tried to at least. Things happened, they all died…became vampires. Turns out that Councilor Fiirnar had contracted vampirism from me…and he became a strong Vampire Lord…stronger than Harkon could ever be. He almost killed me when I tried to defend Nexa's children. But Nexa had this uncle…Julanza. He married Yuvenni, and they were a major part of the royal family, and Nexa loved them just as much. When Nexa and her children all died…Uriasha, Julanza's granddaughter, and Veezara's mother, told me come with her. And that's the family I had been guarding. Black Marsh fell to a Dominion raid and I helped what was left of the royal family escape."

"So…you know Maleek because you have been friends with royal family of Black Marsh?" I almost couldn't believe her story.

But she nodded. "Yup. That's also why I'm in the Dark Brotherhood. Got connections with Veezara is what led me to being one of the Astrid's family. And now that Maleek is the Listener…it's almost like it was destiny that I make it this far." She looked down at Cecilie. "Only now…in this day and age has the Listener returned…the time-traveler been born…and the threat of the Dwarves, dragons, and whatever gods defy our existence all coincided at the same time. I don't think this is coincidence… something big is about to happen… and when it does I don't want to live past it. It's time for all this to end; and my eternal quest with it." She looked up at me. "Once Cecilie is around my age, I will cure myself. I'm not entirely certain I could face the era that would follow this one. Too depressing, whether it be for good or bad." She looked away. "I've lived through too many friends… and for this to end as well with me watching through immortal eyes… I don't think my non-beating heart could take it thrice."

Cecilie, who had been unusually quiet this whole time, looked up at me and Babette. "You wook famiwiar. Have we met?"

Babette cracked a smile and hugged Cecilie close to her. "So many times before."

"Pway with me!" She screamed as she pushed out of her arms and took off down the courtroom.

Babette waved me off, saying, "I'll keep her entertained. You just do whatever you need to do today."

I nodded and watched as Babette chased after Cecilie. A lot of what Babette said to me drilled me right to the heart. I had never really considered how it must be to around and see all the familiar faces of your friends and family die around you while you remain eternally bound to life. I guess she did what she could do; she stayed with her friend's family. She protected them, and sort of just stayed with them. And she was doing everything she could to keep her friend's memory close. And now…she was finally ready to let go of her eternal life and rejoin us. I couldn't keep myself wondering…what would follow after our lives? Would we do something important? Were our lives meaningful? I didn't know, but I knew that Asger and Lydia saved my life. And Ranjier almost ruined mine…and he killed my mother.

I turned around and left the courtroom, forbidding myself from thinking any further into what was stirring in my head. I was a shaman, but even I shouldn't sit down and dwell on the meaning of lives and reasons for existence. Nothing good lived down that road of discovery, only unsolved answers. Better to use my time to do right, not contemplate it. I walked outside and let the cold air stir me for a few seconds. I looked down at my white dress. It matched the fresh powder of snow perfectly. It seemed that a small snowstorm was brewing and we were getting some serious snow coming down. I wondered how long it would last. I remembered the last time I saw snow clouds so big and furious looking we were caved in for a couple days. Back then, I was shorter and would actually get lost in the snow.

"Well, well. If it isn't the lazy princess." Esbern called out to me as he walked up. He was dressed in Akaviri armor, his diamond katana glittering in the light of the still-on-the-outskirts-of-the-clouds sun. He was just walking away from a practice dummy made this attachable rubber stuff. Every time we cut down a dummy, we just put it right back up and the rubber reseals. And it never dried up. Esbern pushed a sliced-off limb from the dummy and placed it back on the dummy. "Where is your armor? We have drills to run today."

I nodded to the old man. "Hey, Esbern. Aren't you a little old to be swinging a blade anymore?"

He looked at me, resting his arms on his outstretched belt. "It's complacency that will kill me, not fighting." He looked back at the dummy and nodded. "I haven't seen you out of armor yet. I see you grew up since I last saw you. Still don't have breasts though, do you?"

I covered my chest and turned away. "You're such a dog." Seriously, the first time I actually talk to him, and that's the first thing he brings up.

He barked in response, which he smiled after doing. "Guilty as charged. I'm old…humor me sometime."

I rolled my eyes and walked away. "I'm starting to think Lydia was right to hurt you every time you touched someone."

He watched me turn to leave before sighing. "I'm just trying to get a rise out of you, Ruby. I'm not the least bit interested in Khajiits. I have Delphine, that's all I need in my life. Well, besides a knowing that the Blades will live on." He looked at me. "You are still a Blade, you realize. And you've neglected your training, neglected our sacred temple." He crossed his arms. "And the training that you will do… you do without passion, without true heart. If I didn't know any better, I would say that you don't consider yourself a Blade anymore."

I know I had neglected my training. I took an oath and I hadn't really lived up to it. I looked back at him, and shrugged. "I'm sorry, but at the time…it was Delphine's orders to go help Asger, and it because of Lydia and Asger that I even stayed behind and trained in the first place. He was the Dragonborn, and to be honest… I would have turned on the Blades if he had wished it. The mission of the Blades was to kill every dragon alive, and if we had lived up to that mission, Alduin would have won because we would have killed Odahviing instead of captured him. And now we have two friendly dragons who serve with us. Paarthurnax is raising an army capable enough to destroy the Dominion, and he wouldn't be able to do that if the Blades lived up to their oaths." I raised my hands in defense when it looked like he was about to interrupt me. "Trust me…I know you well enough to know that you won't put the mission of the Blades over the well-being of the world, but…you have to realize that the Blades have outlived their time. They changed to keep living after the dragons died. They worked in service to protect the Dragonborn."

"Because we knew that Alduin would come back again and that the Dragonborn would be needed to solve it." Esbern claimed.

I nodded. "Yes, and now…Alduin is dead. The last threat to the Blades is gone. So…what's the mission of the Blades now? Kill the rest of the dragons; continue serving the Dragonborn? If so, then I've been doing my duty this whole time. I'm here, aren't I? I'm with Asger and Cecilie every day. And if I run into a hostile dragon that's killing people, I kill it." I turned to face him. "And…I'm starting up my own guild. The Crimson Blades. Taking the training you gave me; and introducing magicka, both ancient shamanic magicka and more modern practices. I will take what you gave to me and perfect it, connect it to the soul of the world. It's my way of keeping the Blades alive; making them something more…something this world could use. The current Blades should think about changing too. I think you and Delphine should sit down and talk it over."

His eyes had hardened while I talked to him. He didn't say it, but I could see that I pushed a button I shouldn't have. "I will take it in consideration." He offered before turning to go back inside his little Akaviri designed fort. He turned to look back at me. "Ruby…you've changed, and I'm not saying it's for the better or worse; nor can I begin to say that you are not right in your conclusion. Sometimes… things need to change. Perhaps it's time." He walked into the fort, slowly closing the door behind him.

I felt really sorry for saying all that to him, but it's how I felt. I wasn't a Blade…I just trained with them. It wasn't my mission to go out to find and kill dragons. Heck…I didn't even know what my mission was so far. I just wanted to live. And to be honest…I wanted to live with my friends and family. I couldn't do that while hunting for the remaining dragons that lived around Tamriel.

I didn't know how long I stood there in the snowfall until I heard someone stomping through the snow. Samantha was dressed her usual opalite armor, her navy blue alliance armored dress underneath it. "Hey, Ruby." She called to me as she walked up. "I heard everything. You ok?"

I nodded. "Yeah… I just feel bad that I don't stay with them anymore."

She crossed her arms. "What do they even do anymore?"

I shrugged. "That's the thing, they don't do things anymore. They train so that they can kill dragons. And now…I guess they're just preparing for the war with the Aldmeri Dominion."

She sighed as she walked up to me, hugging me. "Aww, don't feel bad." She said as she petted me on my head. As usual, this annoyed me when other people did it, but I know Samantha only did it _because_ it annoyed me. "Don't forget… you're opening your own guild." She pulled me away and looked me in the eye. "How's the curse been today?"

That was something I hadn't really thought of. But once I thought of it, I remembered all the crap that happened this morning. "My bag with all my leather dresses has gone missing and my wedding dress I'm saving for Maleek was mysteriously the only dress in my dresser this morning so…" I waved down to my white dress. "I have to wear it today." I rolled my eyes. "If I can survive to the end of the day without ruining it…I'll be amazed and thankful."

She awed at my dress, pulling on the sewn-in blue flower net pattern. "This is really something, Ruby." She continued admiring it.

"Yeah…and I want to keep it that way." I said with a sigh as I looked around. "But there were already some accidents today. Cecilie tore my veil; thinking it was a blanket for her to sleep with. There was a wrap-around bow that I had…but it ended up stuck on a handrail on the staircase. I didn't notice it until it pulled me. I lost my footing and it ripped right off me. Broke one of my shoes falling. Luckily I didn't get hurt, or the rest of my dress. Those things I can replace." I waved them off. I looked around. "As long as I stay away from any cooking food, or anyone painting, I'm sure I can survive to the end of the day."

Samantha nodded. "Don't worry, Ruby. You may be a few sizes smaller than me when it comes to the chest, but I think I have some dresses that will fit you nonetheless."

"What is with everyone pointing out my flat chest?" I cried out loud.

She patted me on the shoulder. "It's ok, Ruby. Most Khajiits are." She started pulling me. "We should hurry before anything else happens. I have a basic tunic and pants you can wear. If nothing else, Ashana has some monk robes."

"Ashana is also a head shorter than me." I replied. "Her stuff won't fit on me. You're at least as tall as me." _If not heavier than me and not dead skinny._ I thought to myself. I don't know if that would have been a compliment or an insult. She was built with muscle and it showed some days. Ashana looked frail in comparison. She was also shorter than both of us. She looked a lot like what I remembered her looking like when we were slaves. She hadn't grown an inch and still looked pretty young. But she was older than me by a year, just like Samantha.

"Hey, Ruby!" Voluung called from the smithy.

I stopped to see what he wanted, but Samantha was still pulling me. "Ruby?" She called. "We shouldn't stop. You should get you changed first."

"It's important." Voluung called from his boiling pot. I nodded to him and pulled my arm from Samantha.

"It can wait." I said to her. I looked up at Voluung. He didn't really talk to me, or anyone for that matter. If he wanted to talk to me, there had to be a reason for it. "What's up, Voluung?"

"Have you seen Tuva?" He asked. "She rarely ever leaves the house and I haven't seen her around the town. I thought maybe she went to the castle to play with Cecilie."

I shook my head. "I haven't seen her." Tuva was a nasty eleven year-old Orc. She was sadistic, evil, but that was only to people she didn't like. She liked me just fine, and she loved Cecilie. Her evilness was directed to all the people that we hated; the Dominion being on top of that list.

Voluung nodded. "Ok." He sounded worried, but he tried to grunt it off like his father would have. He looked back up at me, nodding me up. "Care to examine this? I think I got the chocolate right this time." I nodded and walked up the stairs leading to his smithy. I should explain. He does more than just smelt metal. He also sells chocolate stuff. He's my favorite supplier of chocolate bars. When I walked up, I could see the chocolate bubbling in the cauldron. He waved me up to the boiling pot. "Please, try some."

And I did. I grabbed a wooden spoon and used it to pull some liquid dripping chocolate up to my mouth. I licked the spoon, surprised that I could taste the moon sugar inside it. Yeah, this is why he wanted me to taste it. He was hoping to increase the sales to the incoming caravan. He has this Khajiit girl he wants to impress. He hadn't seen her since she stayed behind to form a colony in Stros M'kai and she was coming up with a traveling caravan. He wanted to present her family with moon chocolate. And I had to admit, it was tasty. I looked up at Voluung. He was trying so hard to not look worried or embarrassed, but I let myself purr as I carefully pulled the spoon away from me. I nodded to him, dabbing whatever chocolate remained on my fur off with a rag he passed to me. "It's good. I think she'll love it."

He looked away. "You think?" I gave him the rag back and he nodded to me. "Thank you for helping me with this. What do you think I should do for our date? You're a Khajiit girl."

I thought about that. "A moon-lit stroll through the ice dunes to the northeast would be a great start. We really love our moon…" Yeah, moon. Singular. Not sure if anyone remembered this, but there was only one moon now…Secunda. Masser blew up two years ago. And oddly enough, Khajiits could still breed like the moon never really had an effect on us. Go figure, right?

I checked my dress to make sure I didn't ruin it with any chocolate, pleased that I hadn't. I walked away from Voluung, nodding to him as I returned to Samantha. She looked less than pleased that I had taken a chance on tasting chocolate while wearing my wedding dress. "Ruby…that dress is too important for stuff like that."

I stuck my tongue out at her, which was still covered in chocolate I might add. "I can always make a newer, better, sexier dress than this." We walked in silence as we entered Adularia Hall. I wasn't too worried about my dress. If it did end up ruined, I'd just make a new one. In fact, I kinda wanted a reason to make a new one. I'm not sure what the bad luck would be…being stuck with this dress, or having to make a new one. I liked this dress, but I could make better. I could always make better.

I continued to walk with Samantha as she led me to her room inside the guildhall. I looked around for Ashana. I found her in one of the meditation circles. She didn't move from her spot, but I did hear her call me by name to welcome me inside. M'aiq was cleaning himself in his room as we walked past. And I wished I had the foresight to cover my eyes as I walked past his totally open room. That, and I wished dad understood that there were girls in this place and that he had a door…which he should have shut. I didn't need to see my father licking his… well… Hey! Look, that crystal lamp is crooked. I should focus on that. … Damn curse.

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**Cearbhail**:

_What did you guys think of that? not my best chapter, heck I wasn't even really in the mood to right it. I'm just in transition to what comes next. One more filler chapter and we should be getting to the really fun stuff. Just a reminder, this story might not be so long, it depends on how far I really want it to go. The Crimson Blades is supposed to be its own story... but it might get absorbed into this one. Depends on how I want this to go down. And there might be the war in this story... or might not. I haven't decided. I really wish I could.  
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	6. Crimson Blades

**Cearbhail**:

___Great chapter! I know the last one wasn't so...eh... but this one is just pretty great. You'll see.  
_

___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
_

* * *

_Dear diary,_

_It's the 22nd of Evening Star. The past few days have been crazy. Between learning Esbern has a son…and that he's a Blade…I was surprised to find out that Delphine had two daughters and a son as well. All four of them have come by to compete for the role as headmaster of the Blades. Esbern told me that the Blades are dying and that they are going to be the new future, deciding what to do with the Blades. I guess it's my fault, but I'm not sorry. While they've been doing that, I've been at Adularia Hall. We've been researching methods of turning the entire Adularia Hall into a synonymous environment as my everbag. The reason is pretty simple. We just want my crystal spirits to come outside to join us in the Hall. You know, as instructors and stuff. When our first members join, it will be good to have my spirits as teachers for the use of shamanic magicka while the rest of us go out and do our jobs. Ashana has pretty much been at work with the whole thing while Samantha has been digging through tome after tome, even creating her own to find the answer. Of course, we've been spending most of our time in the everbag to understand its creation._

_Other than that, Lydia is going to come back today. From a note I had received, we're getting some company. A lot of it actually. The Jarls are coming over for dinner and discussion. Also, the Moot is being called to have a hearing about the Crimson Blade's Month Trial period. It's basically a free pass to become a guild and see how it goes. If we succeed in being useful, they'll make us one of the 'major' guilds that everyone will hear about all around Skyrim, even among the other provinces. I'm actually kind of excited. Lydia is acting High Queen in Asger's absence. We haven't heard from him yet, but I'm guessing he'll be back soon. I mean…really. How long could his war with a Daedric god and the first Dragonborn be?_

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm…_

_…_

Adularia Hall was pretty special. I had to admit; when I first designed this guildhall, I never thought that for a second that…the building design, which is based on an Ayleid building, would be capable of holding an astral field with vibrational resonance strong enough to materialize the vibrational fields of several, if not all, types of crystals, which results in an actualization of their spiritual intelligences, SI. I thought the everbag was something special, but since it did come from ancient shamanic magicka which utilized leather in a way that held vibrational energy that was capable of containing a separate dimension it was pretty simple to replicate if there was a way to duplicate the same containment field requirements. And since the material found inside the wall was capable of holding the same vibrational field that the everbag did, it was easily able to hold a separate dimension inside it. The only problem we had was that ….we also had windows, and we love to open our windows. I don't know why, it's fucking cold out there, but the breeze helps with the cleansing period of the energy inside the building. Yes…our building needs cleansed just like our crystals. Ayleid design and all that.

So, how did we find a way to hold the vibrational pattern when the windows were open? The windows were made out of clear quartz…or at least they were now. They didn't exactly hold the heat very well, so I replaced the original screen with a thicker screen that was known for allowing natural air flow. We imbedded the thicker screen with a few sunstones per window and voilà…we had heat again. We could even keep our windows open the whole time and it wouldn't feel too…hot. We had this vibrational heat control mechanism that adjusted the wavelength of the sunstones. If we wanted it cooler, we just turned them down. I love crystal science. I had to thank Farengar sometime. His little inventions are miraculous. The College may be good for nothing when it comes to quests…but when it comes to research and development…they're stars.

So, it was because of these little theories and research that we now had a functioning guildhall. My spirits, Lydia's mother and snow seraphim Shriiana included, now roamed the hallway. Lydia's mother, Morgana Battle-Born, had her own little bed down in the basement where she slept when needed to. She was great at magicka so she was helping us as an instructor. And because our little guildhall was so massive and had its own banquet hall built into it, it only made sense to have the Moot here. And that's what was going on today. Amethy and Citrina were running around the guildhall making sure all the crystals were perfectly cleansed. And I was praying to all the Khajiiti gods…all one of them… (because there's only one moon now, and one half-moon with orbiting mini-moons) that my curse did NOT cause me any harm today. Yesterday, a fish that had grown wings fell from the sky and slapped me on the face. It was the weirdest thing to happen to me yet. Even weirder than my toothpaste being replaced with saliva-activated glue. Not a fun morning that was. Or when I found out that honey shampoo had aroused a nest of fire ants. Also not a fun night…and I'm still scratching from all the bites. And I had to shave my entire body. Now I'm fur-less. Dad thinks it hilarious because it means the curse is finally winding down. Thanks the gods.

"Good morning, Siamese Ruby." Samantha called from the doorway.

"Please, don't call me that." I pleaded with her. I looked from her over to a mirror. My skin was all wrinkly and…I was a lot skinnier than I thought, especially my neck and head. I looked like an alien or something, with my grayish skin and pointy wrinkly tail. I hated this! But…once it was over, I would be so happy.

Samantha chuckled and walked up to me. "You look so cute…even without all your fur." She pinched my wrinkly cheek and pulled on my skin.

"Please tell me you know some Alteration magic to make it grow back." I looked back at the mirror, touching my face. I was trying to even out the wrinkles, but I'm guessing that would only happen once my fur grew back.

"I could try an incantation." She replied. "The only real magicka I know are Destruction and Conjuration sets. Well, I do know some Restoration too. But when it comes to Alteration and Illusion, I prefer my incantations. They're much stronger and I don't have to worry about casting them." She cleared her throat and stuck out her hand like she was offering me a line from a play. Energy started humming around her, and because the room was set up like it was, the huge crystal pillars in the edges of the room started glowing. Amethy climbed out of the giant amethyst pillar just behind me. She watched with curiosity as Samantha focused on what she was going to say. "For all those whose hair grows at quickened rates, give us in our time of need, the gift of sudden hair. Bring to my friend the fur that had to be shaved to spare her grief." The energy flowing off her started solidifying as it became more than an intention; it became a force with a mission. And that energy rolled right off her and onto me. And just like that, my fur started sprouting from my pores. I watched in the mirror as my fur practically grew back to where it was. My mane was short…like buzz cut short, but I was ok with that. I'd just grow it back out with Alteration later. I'd look up a spell or something. And…it was weird because I hadn't actually had fur-colored mane since I discovered dyeing my hair. My natural mane was auburn, which I must admit…looked nice.

I ran my fur-covered hand over my mane, amazing at how prickly it felt. "Wow. I've never had my mane this short before."

Samantha shrugged. "It doesn't look so bad, Ruby. At least you have your fur back."

I nodded my thanks to her. "Yes, thank you. I didn't want to meet the Jarls with no fur. I've have enough embarrassing things happen to me this month."

There was a knock at the door and Samantha turned to answer the door. When she opened it up, Amethy nodded to me as she disappeared into the amethyst pillar. You see…the giant pillar was the container for Amethy's spirit. I have several other pillars of the other crystal for Jet, Citrina, Sapphira…you know the other spirits that usually like to mess with me.

"Hello?" Samantha called through the doorway. "May we help you?"

"Just let us in." Ulfric Stormcloak's thick accent grunted as he stepped into the guildhall. He stopped as he looked around. "Looks cozy." He nodded to me. "I see all that hording of yours was really worth it after all. How much did it cost to get this building built?"

"Pretty much everything I had, really." I sighed.

Jarl Ravencrone followed in behind Ulfric. "Such a great source of magicka." She looked at me. "I have something I wish to discuss with you and your…guildmates?" When I nodded, she nodded in return. "It's serious, do not let me forget. But first, we still need to hear what your guild will represent before we allow its creation."

The other Jarls started walking into the entranceway, finishing with Lydia coming in as the last one. When everyone was here, I gestured to Samantha and she waved everyone to follow her. "The dining hall is right this way." When she clapped her hands, the pillars on the corners of the walls started glowing. Amethy, Citrina, and Jet all climbed out of their pillars.

Jarl Ravencrone walked right out of the group and then reached out for Amethy's face. "Are these…are they really spirits?" When I nodded, she broke into a smile and touched Amethy's face, making physical contact. "My word…to imagine you've created an entire guildhall that can resonate with the frequency of the second dimension…it's remarkable." Jarl Ravencrone was this really powerful seer who had more magicka than most of us. It was more like a curse to her than it was a gift, but when she came around magical places like ours, she couldn't help but show her mage face.

"Actually, the concept was founded by the Ayleids back during the first Aedra uprising, when Khajiits were being bred for combat against the Aedra threat. Their original temples were designed to open a portal to another dimension inside a small pocket space that we'd have known as welkynd stones." Ashana stated emotionlessly as she walked out of the meditation circle to join us. "Since this building was already designed as an Ayleid building, it seemed fully capable to employ some of the more ancient means of magicka. It took me a few days to study the welkynd stones in the meditation chamber, but once I understood how the vibrational pattern redoubled off the walls, it was only natural that once we set a vibrational pattern for the whole building that resonated with the crystal pillars that we'd be able to actualize a dimensional barrier that allowed for spiritual manifestation." She shrugged. "It was simple. Took me maybe four hours of studying and two hours of practical application to get the entire building to resonate on a frequency of the second dimension."

The Jarls all stood there, wide-eyed, and mouth dropped. Samantha only chuckled as she wrapped Ashana up in a hug. "That's our resident brainiac." She turned to face the other Jarls. "This is Ashana…um…what's your last name?"

"My name is Ashana Maesa from the Urshilaku Tribe." She said to Samantha and to the Jarls. "Please excuse my emotionless exterior. I was mishandled as a child and because of it, I was forced to destroy my emotional aura to protect myself from attempted suicide."

Jarl Balgruuf looked over at me. "Ruby…is this your friend that you told us about?"

I nodded. "Yup, the one from the slave camp. Speaking of which, this one time this guy named Kim…you know, from slave camp, well one time he wanted Ashana and I to…" Lydia ran over and clamped her hand over my mouth.

"Ruby…no." She gently smacked me on my head. "We don't talk about those days. They're behind you."

"Yeah…just like Kim. He liked being behind me." I said while I looked away from her. And that made her groan. I almost laughed when I realized that it was just like the old times. I would say something and Lydia would get annoyed. I missed the old days. … Not the old days at slave camp, but the old days when we did stuff as a team. Now…_I_ was the team it seemed. Not with Asger right now, not with Maleek. Lydia is taking care of Cecilie. I'm basically alone now…except for my friends.

"This is entertaining and all…" Jarl Skald said as he walked up to us. He was the nasty one of the group. I remember two years ago when he acted so concerned for my sister, Cecilie, who was tied up to a pole and essentially killed for being a seer. Of course it was a Thalmor, Councilor Fiirnar the Great, who was there making sure she was dying. Well, Cecilie didn't die, and she actually came up with the plan with Jarl Skald to humiliate Fiirnar the Great. He was more than pleased to act weak and docile for the Councilor. That wasn't his true nature though. He was mean, and sick-minded. "While I do remember the service you did for Dawnstar a few years ago, it goes without being said that we would not all convene at this hour to discuss your anal sex life with a fat Imperial." He didn't know the half of it. When Kim was finished…he'd make me lick it, earning me the Dick-Licker nickname. I hated him so much. Good thing he was dead.

Samantha was about to tear Jarl Skald a new one; I could see it in her reddened face. But I walked in front of her, nodding to him. "Yup…no reason to get all worked up about the past." I gestured them to follow me. I led them through the halls to the dining area, where the spirits had set out several plates of deer and mead that had been taken out of my everbag. Oh yeah…I have a mead hall in my bag that Jet works at. He enjoys mead it seems. Too bad I can't drink mead…honey and all that. He brews sugar cane for me and makes me moon milk for me when I ask for it. That's right…I have my own moon sugar.

The Jarls all started sitting down, Ulfric pulling out a chair for Elisif for her. She eyed him cautiously. "Ulfric, if I did not know better, I'd say that…" She was forced to stop mid-sentence as Ulfric kissed her. We all paused as it happened. You see…Jarl Ulfric killed Jarl Elisif's husband and started a civil war within Skyrim. Just two years ago, we got the two sides to back off and end the war. Elisif was still mad at Ulfric, but after he'd been turned into a werewolf, he started having feelings for Elisif. I was surprised to see them kissing. When Ulfric pulled away, Elisif was red-faced and…breathless. "Again." She mumbled and they kissed again. "Again. … Again…" And they kept making out. Lovely.

Then Ulfric started growing werewolf ears and a tail sprouted up. He started humping her leg and she was forced to beat him upside the head before throwing a glass of water in his face. He immediately jumped off her, saying, "Sorry…two years and I'm still adjusting to it." He rubbed the back of his head. "Um…call me, maybe?"

She nodded. "Maybe."

Jarl Skald rolled his eyes. "Beauty…" He gestured to Elisif. "and the beast." He waved his hand to the shedding Ulfric. "I'm sick of this lovey-dovey reference crap." He looked at me. "May we please begin this? I want to watch Lost tonight, and I'm behind by a few episodes so I'm certain I won't know a damn thing that's going on…not that I ever did to begin with."

I nodded and pulled out the guild signup sheet. Last night we had filled it out. It took us a while but we finally finished it.

_Guild Name: Crimson Blades._

_Guild Purpose: Research/Development of shamanic/magicka studies; protection of Tamriel as spellswords when needed; healers for wounded, sick, or dying._

_Guild Mission: To bring balance to the multi-dimension and to Tamriel._

_Guild Motto: We swear that no magic is too old for us to practice, no ancient mystery too lost for us to find. We will bring to light that which has been lost in an effort to improve who we are today._

_Prerequisites for joining: Must do an interview with one of the founders first._

_Rank Structure: Cleanser, Activator, Resonator, Hedge-shaman, Shaman, Full-shaman, Moon-shaman, Sun-shaman, Shaman Master._

_Founders: Nisha Ruby Stonearm: 4e191, 8th Evening Star._

_ Samantha Jurard: 4e190, 16th Last Seed._

_ Ashana Maesa: 4e 191, 9th Second Seed._

_Date of Creation: …_

The Jarls looked it over a few times before Jarl Ravencrone sat up. "Ok, so to be clear…this is a magical guild, correct?"

I nodded. "Yes. We do not discriminate any sort of magicka…including the darker magics: necromancy and blood magic as just a couple to bring up. Things only get bad if we don't understand them, which is why here…any curious will be able to safely study their magics while under the care of the crystal spirits and older generation practitioners to guide them."

"And what if one of your own becomes the next Mannimarco?" Jarl Skald asked.

"We will take care of it as a guild mission." Samantha patted her sheathed diamond sword. "You have our word."

Lydia, my mother, sighed into her hands. "That is a little unsettling that you'd allow safe practice of the darker arts, Ruby."

I stood up proud as I confronted her. "They will practice it either way, and at least here we can guide those from taking the darker path often found in studying such magic without supervision. Magicka is magicka…it's not light; it's not dark. Only those who misuse it are light or dark. And in order to understand all that is to be learned from magicka…from the universe that surrounds us, we have to swallow our morals sometimes and delve a little deep in the murky waters." I shrugged. "It's the only way. I'm not saying we'll condone the murder of someone or desecration of dead to further our magical understanding of how the world works, but in texts and experimentations we have to do ancient rituals that demand pig sacrificing or something."

Lydia nodded. "Ok, I can see that."

"Now…you said add in protection of Tamriel as spellswords. Are…are you requesting to be a fighter's guild sort of thing?" Jarl Laila asked. She was the Jarl from Riften, and she had been the one to keep Riften from becoming more of a rat hole than it already had become. Mjoll had helped a lot, and had actually helped give her some hope that Riften hadn't been lost after all. She believed that the law would always come through and that all corruption would eventually fade. It wasn't totally weird that she'd ask me a question about quests.

Samantha nodded. "That is true. The practice and development of magicka is good and all, but…who would we be if we held all that information for ourselves? No, we'd use our newfound skills to help the world."

"As in the way that I helped the Tamriel Alliance by sharing my crystalline weapons and armor." I tapped Samantha's chest plate. It was fused Orichalcum with opalite. It made an armor that was resistant to enemy magicka fire and it also enhanced the magicka aura. "Much like with the diamond swords and the opalite armor I've been helping to create, more things may be discovered here to share with the world. Much like this entire guildhall with the crystal spirits. We just discovered that like…two days ago max."

Jarl Balgruuf nodded. "I must say… I'm impressed with what you've done grand-niece." Maybe I should explain that too. Lydia was my mother…technically. She adopted me one day, and Jarl Balgruuf was her uncle, so I was like his second niece something removed. Who cares, is what I say. So, he nodded as he looked at Amethy, who stood silently in the corner. She was just as emotionless as Ashana, but it wasn't because of some traumatic past. Amethy was just…she didn't have any emotions. She was a spirit without emotional capacity, unlike Citrina who would jump around screaming at the top of her lungs at how much she loved the cold and bracing air from outside. Sapphira is really shy so she never really shows herself unless I call for her. "So, you…spirit. What's your name?"

Amethy looked over at Jarl Balgruuf. "My name is Amethy. I am the spirit of the amethyst pillar in the living quarters." She pointed out at the wall where she stood. I knew she was really pointing at the pillar two rooms over, but only she could see it from where she was standing. "I assist all those who need purified, uplifted, or protected. I am the healer of the spirits."

Jarl Balgruuf nodded. "Well, I think this is a good thing."

Jarl Igmund from Markarth nodded. "I agree. I can't begin to imagine what legacy your guild will leave behind for us to learn from." He rubbed his hands together. "Just imagine the things you will discover…the things you will learn from the ancients." You see… Jarl Igmund is from Markarth, a town that was originally built by the Dwarven race. It was because that he lived for excavating the Dwarven ruins and discovering their secrets that he was looking forward to whatever discoveries we would make here. He was hoping we'd be able to reduplicate what the Dwarves did so long ago.

Lydia stood up from her seat and addressed the Jarls. "So, may we come to a decision? Shall we grant the Crimson Blades a year trial?"

Jarl Ravencrone shook her head. "No, we shouldn't. It is quite obvious they do not require a trial period. Here we have the daughter of the High King and Queen of Skyrim; an accomplished Thane of Skyrim, served in the Blades as High King's protector…fought in numerous battles. Her skill is not one to be questioned. She is smart, witty, and quick with both her mind and her swords. And beside her we have the accomplished nightblade from Fort Septim. She is loyal, a natural leader, and accomplished soldier. And even though we do not know much about this Ashana girl…"

"She is the one that taught me shamanism." I said to everyone. "She taught me back when we were slaves. And when we escaped, she helped give me a reason to live rather than die. She's a true friend; I would trust her with my life. And she's managed to close a rift in Dawnstar already for the guild. She's amazing."

Jarl Skald nodded to that. "Ah, yes. Erandur told me about what happened at Nightcaller Temple. So…this is the heroine that saved our town from being overrun by soul-sucking energy orbs?"

I nodded, grabbing onto Ashana's shoulder. "Yup, she's your hero."

Jarl Ravencrone nodded and stood up like the interview was over. "Alright then. I say we skip the yearlong formalities of the trial period and just give her the right to open the guild to the public. We do not have time to dillydally with the threat of the Dominion pushing closer to us."

My mom nodded. "I agree. If the Moot believe it so, so shall it be."

Jarl Ravencrone, Jarl Balgruuf, Jarl Igmund, Jarl Skald, Jarl Elisif, Jarl Ulfric, Jarl Korir, and Jarl Laila all raised their hands in support. Only Jarl Siddgeir didn't raise his hand for the voting process. He was the Jarl of Falkreath and he wasn't exactly known for voting on anything that didn't profit him in some fashion. Jarl Korir was the Jarl in charge of Winterhold before Asger moved in as High King. He still held power and did Jarl duties and when it came time for matters that only the High King could handle, Jarl Korir would gladly stand down. Mostly, he just relaxed and let my dad do his thing. He was just happy to have his town back to normal. And having a fully functioning guild would definitely help the town's reputation and standing.

Lydia rolled her eyes at Jarl Siddgeir and stood up. "The majority of the Moot rules: Crimson Blades is now a full guild. Let it be known that the Crimson Blades was founded on 4e208 22nd Evening Star." She smiled at me, bowing her head in respect. "Shaman Masters Stonearm, Jurard, and Maesa…welcome to Winterhold. We will begin forwarding quests that pertain to the nature of your guild. You will handle what we give you, and it will be up to you what is worth being handled. This is serious responsibility…you'd better get more members."

And just like that, the entire guildhall started emptying out, except for Lydia and Jarl Ravencrone. Lydia waited behind, walking up to us. She gave us a big smile and then wrapped me up in a hug. "I'm really proud of you, Ruby. You have no idea just how much."

"Aww…thanks." I said in return. She went on and hugged the rest of the group before turning to leave. "We'll have a feast in your honor tonight."

As soon as she left, Jarl Ravencrone walked up to us. Her long cape made of raven feathers flowed behind her. When she walked up, she looked at us a few times before nodding. "I believe I have your first member. You wrote down in your guild signup sheet that age is not a deterrent for the requirements to be a member."

I nodded. "Yeah, when I was fourteen, I was already training as a Blade. I think the younger people start training the better off they are for when they turn sixteen. Now…joining younger is ok…but for quests, all minors under 16 must be accompanied by at least two adults."

Jarl Ravencrone nodded. "That is a very fair rule you have in place. If that is true…I believe I have your first member." She paused as if she didn't really want to say it. "My son…Joric. He's always been unstable and I've been unable to help him with his gift. I believe you can help him. So, if you don't mind…will you please look after him?"

I nodded. "Sure, no problem. If he wishes to join, that's great. And if he just wants treatment, we can give that too. We are healers after all." I waved her to follow us. The three of us led her over to the healing room. I waved to the crystalline beds. "This is where we can do our healing. The beds are designed to…"

She walked right past us up to the tables. "Hmm…they seemed to be designed to take up to six different crystals and then manipulate the table to the point where it can heal almost any injury…physical or psychic." She nodded. "I will send him here right away. And…I have something to tell you." She walked up to me. Her eyes glowed blue for a second, like she wasn't there. "Venture to Riverwood." Her voice sounded distant. "The Guardian Stones…inspect the guardian stones. You will find an ally…and a clue." Her eyes came back and she turned for the door. "I will be leaving now. Morthal won't last one day without me."

I looked around at the others. Samantha looked puzzled but she didn't say anything. She stood there, rubbing her chin in thought as she looked at the ground. "I wonder what that could mean." She looked up at me. "Think we need to go check it out?"

I nodded. "Yeah…we do. How about tomorrow though? And one of us should stay here in case Joric shows up."

Samantha sighed. "I'll stay. While I don't think Ashana will be rude to the boy, I think I should be the one to examine him. Besides, you'll need her for whatever you may find up in Riverwood." I guess that sounded fine.

I looked over at Ashana. "Feel like going on a quest?"

She looked over at me. "Will you abandon me?"

I sighed. "No…Ashana. I won't abandon you."

"Then yes, I will go with you." She replied.

* * *

**Cearbhail**:

_what did you guys think of it? It was nice seeing all the Jarls again...and to have that classical Lydia/Ruby moment where she talks about her past and then Lydia would stop her. Haha, classic. Anyway, things should start going uphill. Got some new members that will join. If you think of what happened in Riverwood in the Chronicles of Lydia so long ago, you might not be surprised who Ruby will meet...and who will join the guild. And Joric...haha...he's like this airheaded genius who gets lost in his own world of things that might happen.  
_


	7. Ghost Riverwood

**Cearbhail**:

___Love it, love it, love it! This chapter has become so much more than I ever could have hoped for. Thank you Dr. Who for coming back on Netflix. It inspired me to so much more... and it's become so much more than I ever could have hoped for. The story has evolved beyond what I originally wanted. And it's only beginning. Oh joy! War will come... it will come. And to so much more than just the Changing Fates story. Speaking of which, the way it ties in...perfect now. Everything I wanted. it's finally coming together, just like I planned it twoyears ago. Amazing.  
_

___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
_

* * *

_Dear diary,_

_It's the 23rd of Evening Star. Yesterday, we got the Crimson Blades approved. It's official…we're an official guild now. It seems so…weird. It's like…nothing really has changed, but I know that it will soon enough. I don't know if I know how to be a Guildmaster…or anything really. I guess it's just one step at a time and see what happens, right? We'll see. Anyway, Ravencrone is sending us her son to be examined; because he has the curse of being a seer. Soon Cecilie will be in the same boat so…I guess we'll figure it out sooner or later. Other than that, Ravencrone said we should go investigate Riverwood as our first guild mission. So, Ashana and I are going down to Riverwood to see what's going on. Man…I haven't been there in two years. Not since the war with the Lammer so long ago. I wonder when she'll come visit us again soon. We built all those tunnels for the Lamia to travel to us, and they haven't exactly made too much a scene yet. Perhaps soon._

_So, last night, we celebrated the opening of our guild by breaking out the toilet paper and trashing the College of Winterhold. Yeah, it was fun. And then we wrote on their walls the complete formula for how to remove their heads from their asses. It was hilarious until J'zargo showed up and asked me if I was single. I had to bitch slap him for that. That guy is old enough to be well…maybe an older brother, like six years older. He's like 21 or something…still, well ok, I guess that's not too bad. But still, I'm engaged to Maleek. No way I'd let someone like him try anything with me. I'll kill him first._

_So, Ashana and I got up pretty early and got on our carriage to Riverwood. The ride was silent, and nothing bad happened to the carriage. When we arrived, my dress snagged on a loose nail and almost ripped it in half, so I had to go out and hunt a deer for a pelt for a new one. I have never, ever, lost a fight to a deer before. I guess there is a first time for everything, right? I charged up and the deer bucked me right in the face. I hit the ground pretty hard. And then it ran away. Right before I could get up a sabre cat came out of nowhere to attack me. I thought I was going to die until it started humping me. I tend to forget…I'm a cat. I had no idea something like that would happen to me. Well, I killed the sabre cat and tore his pelt off. Now I had this really nice dress that matches my fur color. It's weird, but it's also a first. Anyway, now that I have a dress that isn't falling apart, we're going to start investigating._

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm_

_…_

I looked down at my new pelted dress. I looked like a cave woman; wearing a pelt that was squared off and tied off with a belt made from the arm of the sabre cat. As soon as my curse was gone, I was going right back to my rabi and my fancier dresses that I loved so much. Sure, I wore these pelt dresses when I needed to, and right now I needed one. I accidentally left my bag at home so I didn't even come down here with my armor or spare clothes. Maybe my curse made me forget about them; I'm not sure. All I knew was that this was all I had right now. If I had thought about it, I could have just taken the pelt to the smithy and have the woman there fashion it to a vest, top, and skirt like last time. I really loved that outfit she helped me make.

But, my purpose in town wasn't to go dress shopping; it was to find some…clue as to what was going on here in town. Ravencrone told us to investigate the Guardian Stones. The Guardian Stones were these astrologically connected stones that helped overlook the three basic groups of adventurers: the Warrior, the Mage, and the Acrobat. We used to call it the Thief Stone, but because plenty of bards and other stealthy types were being type casted as bad guys, we had to change the name of the Stone to one of great acrobatic skills. It's the politically correct term these days. These stones were supposed to give people answers about who they were supposed to become. It was common practice to bring a baby to the stones and lay it on the ground and see which one would light up for it. Most were born as warriors, some as mages. It helped us mold what our children would do for their studies. I hated the concept that they were using these astrological stones for parenting advice, but I guess what I do with crystals isn't so different. Ok, it is, sort of. I'm not changing someone's living patterns based on what one says… well, unless they would die if they didn't then I might.

Ashana walked beside as me walked through town. It was unusually silent. Normally, I would hear at least the smithy guy out here clanging his hammer on the anvil. I didn't see him at his station. I thought about going into the tavern, but as I walked up the stairs, I paused. I don't know what made me not go inside, but I didn't. I turned around and looked at Ashana. "Is it just me…or is it eerily silent here?"

She looked up at me, cocking an eyebrow as she looked around. She seemed to be scanning the town for a few seconds before looking back at me. "I detect no life forms in this town." She reported to me dispassionately.

I nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking." I waved her to follow me. "Think we might need weapons?"

She shook her head and gestured to gloves and wristbands on her arms. They were filled with several types of crystals. She even wore a belt with several variants of crystals wands hanging on a connection ring. "I am prepared for combat."

I looked down at my own belt. I had no weapons at all. I had forgotten my sword at home with the rest of my stuff…go figure, right? So, I had no place better than to go into the smithy's house and look for a sword I could use. I walked over to the forge to see if there were any just sitting around that I could use; I didn't find any. The entire forge was just… empty. Even the coal in the forge was gone. Almost like it hadn't been used in years. I was starting to get worried that Ravencrone purposely sent me here to find something. I don't know what I was looking for yet. But I pushed away from the forge and rushed for the door. I tried to push it open but it was locked. I rammed my shoulder pretty hard into the doorway and I bounced off like I was a lightweight…which I was. I'm pretty light. I'd probably activate the Acrobat Stone if I walked up to it.

I rubbed my shoulder, cursing in Ta'agra as Ashana walked up to me. "Allow me to try." She reached for her belt and snatched one of her darker crystal wands. She held it up like she would a staff, placing the wand's tip at the door. "Unlock." The door's latch turned and the door just pushed open. She clipped her wand back down and looked at me. "We're mages, Ruby…not barbarians." She patted me on the head apologetically and walked into the room. "There is no one inside if you were curious." She called back out to me as she strolled inside.

"Nope…just looking for a weapon." I said to her. I walked through the open doorway and looked around. The inside of the house looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks. The floors were littered with dust; the fireplace was filled with charcoal from the fire that had been burning until there was nothing left to burn. The tables had what used to be food on top of it. What wasn't chewed up by animals was old and moldy. I don't think anything would eat the bread I saw sitting on the plate near the fireplace. It was not bread anymore, just old mold. I looked around for a few seconds before I saw something I remembered from my past. Sitting over a bed in the corner of the room was a sheathed wakizashi. I walked over to it and grabbed it. I pulled it off its resting place on the wall and unsheathed it. A brilliant purple and yellow blade sang from the hilt and I was suddenly transported to the past.

I had just finished my skirt and was going to ask Cecilie how her quest to make me a sword was going. She had somehow melted down most of my amethyst and citrine with some refined moonstone down into three blades…all wakizashies. I was so mad at her, but then I found out she did it on purpose to get me used to the idea of crystalline swords. And I figured it out pretty quickly. I let Dorthe, Cecilie's new friend, keep one of the wakizashies. I even taught her how to use it. I couldn't believe I had forgotten about those old days so easily. So….this was Dorthe's bed. And she was gone…just like everyone else in this town.

Ashana walked up to me. She looked down at the blade and then back up at me. "Is this your old room or something?"

I shook my head. "No…this was a gift." I looked over at her. "My sister's friend lives here…and this is where I discovered crystal swords. Here, at this smithy. This was a sword in the first set of three that Cecilie and Alvor made for me. I had one; Cecilie had one; and Dorthe had one as well. We were the first three to ever have crystal swords like this." I sheathed the crystal blade and focused on it. It felt depleted, but I could fix that. "We need to cleanse this blade in the river."

She nodded. "I understand." She tilted her head to the side. "But if you do that, you will not be able to view the sword's vibrational imprints. It might lead us to what happened here."

I hadn't thought of that. I unsheathed the wakizashi and held the flat side of the sword to my eye. I looked into my reflection in the blade's shine. I willed the sword to speak to me, to show me what it had seen…anything that would tell me what happened to its owner. I was suddenly pulled from my body and was standing where I stood now, only I was in astral form. Two crystal spirits, miniature forms of Amethy and Citrina, stood next to me. They were pretty small; coming up only to my knees. They didn't speak, but they did point to doorway. I nodded and walked out through the door without opening it. Outside I saw the village going about its normal routine. And then…a rift opened up right in the middle of town. Those little things surged out of the rift. Everyone was confused but they weren't stupid. They ran for it. They almost got away, but more rifts started popping up everywhere. And these astral things, they looked like really buff Dunmer with brown skin, wearing thick shiny golden Dwarven armor, charged out of the portals. They started grabbing the villagers and retreated into the portals. I watched as Dorthe, now a taller teenager, cursed and grabbed a sword off the anvil. It still glowed with heat as she started waving it around at the astral figures. Her sword went right through them without harming them. One of them grabbed her and threw her in the rift.

The same process happened over and over again until no one in town was left. And once the last one disappeared the vision faded away and I was staring at the crystal wakizashi. I nodded to the sword. It seemed to be asking me to bring its owner back to it. "I will find them, I promise." I sheathed the sword and slid it into my custom belt. I looked at Ashana, nodding to her. "It was a rift. Astral beings, that looked like… I don't know but they were elven, like buff Dunmer, and they wore Dwarven armor, charged out and collected the townspeople." I walked out the door, looking around for any signs of a rift. "But…how do we find them?"

Ashana looked at me. "Buff Dunmer with Dwarven armor?" She looked down. "Dwemer, then. It would not make sense for the townspeople to be tossed in rifts, Ruby. Especially by the Dwemer." She walked outside and joined me on the porch. "Rifts like the one I stepped into only tear a person apart by stripping their aura and energy from them. The sensation that would be necessary for travel off this plane would be a dimensional portal." She scratched her chin. "I recall the rifts were black holes consuming energy to remain open. What if the rifts are only a side-effect of the dimensional barriers of this world collapsing?"

"What?" I looked over at her. She looked lost in her own world though. "Feel like clarifying what you mean by that?"

She nodded. "When Alduin appeared in our world, it was because a portal used to throw him in the future had broken free. So, it would stand to reason that a portal in the past was used to connect to our present. If that was possible, the dimensional barriers of the past and present are currently connected; and that would make our barriers weakened. Our barrier keeping us from Aetherius and Oblivion had already been weakened during the Aedra War and the Oblivion Crisis."

"But Martin Septim rebuilt those barriers with his death." I said to her.

She nodded. "Yes, but the Aedra War followed shortly after. And now Alduin was forced into our time by someone in the past." She sighed. "This is a wild guess…but it has to be said." She looked down at the ground, drawing in the sand with her foot. "Your old Master, Esbern, told me about the dragons and the Dwarves. He believed the two of them were forced to leave the planet. When Alduin was forced through time, he may have ended up in a state of Aetherius, where the Dwarven race may be now." She looked me in the eye. "And your father, Solomon, told me that the Dwarven race is preparing to return. What if they _are_ coming back now? Dragons, Alduin, portals from the past to the present…and the forgotten lost Dwarven race…dragged from the past where they disappeared…and were now coming back to our present?"

Qron. Oh my gods…Qron! He was the leader of the Dwemer armies. That was right! I remember that now. I looked back at Ashana, grabbing her by her shoulders. "Ashana…you're right! That's exactly what's happening! The rifts…they're the portals of Aetherius that are weakened by the Dwemer trying to cross over!" I couldn't believe it. Solomon was right. He said they'd be back in two years…and would go to war with us. It was happening right now! "But…how do we fight back?"

She actually smiled. "The Guardian Stones, like Ravencrone suggested. They break the dimensional barriers in order to predict one's future. We can use the stones to open our own rift…our own portal to where the Dwarves are. Besides, the rifts aren't the portals. The portals are portals; the rifts are the deterioration of our natural dimensional barriers. They are trying to mend but they are getting nothing more than more diluted and tearing apart. If we wish to secure our dimensional security…we will need to fix the rifts."

Something she said about portals from the past and the future made me think of Cecilie. "Wait…if throwing Alduin into the future can destabilize the integrity of the trans-dimensional barriers… could one person going from a point in time to other points in time do the same thing?"

She nodded. "Yes. With each time that person would go from one dimension to the next…those worlds would become connected in a complicated web of meshed barriers. I wouldn't be surprised if what happened in one world would suddenly affect the next one, while keeping its one personal integrity. But if a war with a forgotten race of Dwemer spilled out in our time…it would not be too above the thought that they could be poking around other dimensional holes as well. If this time traveler was going back to the Aedra Wars…when the dimensional barriers were at their weakest in known history…one could imagine an entire extinction impending for everyone."

I couldn't believe it. Cecilie…I had to warn Cecilie…but how? I could never see her again. Man…if only she would call me. If only this 'Mark' spell on me could be used to send her a message. I would warn her about what we found out. She was in danger. Wherever she was right now…might become a hazardous zone for Dwarven overlords. "Oh no…Cecilie."

Ashana tilted her head to the side. "I do not understand…what does your sister have to do with this?"

"She's a time-traveler…or will be in ten years." I shrugged. "Well, not our Cecilie, I don't think. But the Cecilie from a different time, a different universe. She was here, remember? She fought with us against Alduin. And she told me about her time in the Aedra War. She's opened portals between the two worlds. We're connected to them."

Ashana nodded. "Sounds possible; although it's still a theory. We don't know for certain that the Dwemer are really coming back at all, or if they're related to the portal ripped open for Alduin long ago." She started walking towards the Guardian Stones, and I followed right behind her. "But…I believe we will find out really soon whether or not all this is related to what you said."

We walked in silence up to the Guardian Stones. The entire walk was peaceful. No dragons were flying above us, no wolves challenged us. A bird crapped on me, but that was the worst of anything I could expect from this curse by now. Dad told me the curse would be winding down now that I had to shave myself. The worst was over. Ripping my dress, getting kicked in the face by a deer and then getting face-fucked by a sabre cat was pretty bad, but I hoped it would start dying down now. Wiping some bird crap off my head was the lightest of today. My eye still stung from where it received a kick. I was sure it was black underneath all my fur.

"Ruby, I have a question." Ashana asked from beside me. "What is it like to be in love?"

I looked over at her for a second. "Oh…you know…it's …?" I shrugged. "It's hard to explain. Maleek, well… he makes me feel so alive. But he's never around…and that makes me feel horrible. I want to be by his side, helping him fight his enemies. I want to hold him every second of the day, knowing that our lives are too short to waste a minute of it on something stupid. I want him to be with me, to say that he'll love me. To…I don't know… just be with me."

She nodded. "I believe I understand. Would it be weird of me to say that I love Erandur?"

That hit me hard. Erandur was like…really old. "You…_what_?"

"He took care of me. I never wanted to leave his side. We did everything together and I couldn't think of anything I would have rather done than be there for him." She looked at me. "Is that love?"

I shrugged. "Maybe? Isn't Erandur like your father, though?"

She titled her head. "Perhaps… but is there a difference between love and parental love?"

I nodded. "Yes, a lot of difference. Do you…want to have sex with Erandur?"

She shook her head. "No. But I want to please him. To make him happy."

"Sounds more like your friend then." I said to her. "Do you put him in the same category as me and Samantha?"

She looked down for a second. "I did not think of it like that. But you are correct; he is like you and Samantha. Close companions I wish to journey with, but not explore intimate relations." She looked back at me. "Love, in the context that you speak of with Maleek, is an intimate feeling of sexual attraction? Correct?"

I shrugged. "It's…more complicated than that, but yes, mostly that's what it is."

She nodded. "I understand love is very different and comes in different forms. Hopefully I can find one that I can be sexually attracted to one day. Have a family of my own. Erandur wants that for me; and I do not want to displease him."

The thought of Ashana falling in love was odd for me. She was so emotionless that I thought the very idea impossible. But, I guess she could if she put her mind to it. I patted her on the shoulder. "You'll find him someday." We kept up our pace until we found ourselves standing in front of the Guardian Stones. They looked majestic. They stood ten feet high. I could see the dots that represented the star pattern that held the constellations that held our destiny inside them. The stones were left by the gods to help us reconnect to our roots if we needed to. We weren't alone though. Lying on the ground in front of the stones was a girl. She looked just a little younger than me. She had long brown hair and was grasping at the Warrior Stone like she needed it to survive. She wasn't conscious though.

I looked at Ashana. "Think it might be a survivor?"

That made the girl stir. She pushed off the ground, looking back at us. When I met her brown eyes, I suddenly knew who she was. It was Dorthe. But…I saw her entering the portal. She pushed off the ground, rolling up to her feet. "I…I know you." She said as she squinted. "You're that girl…the one that taught me how to use that sword on your belt." She smiled. "I can't remember your name, but…I'm so glad to see you." She ran up to me, sticking out her hand for a handshake. "I'm Dorthe. Remember? The smithy's daughter."

I nodded. "Yeah, I remember." I took her hand in a handshake. "I'm Ruby. I was told to come here and find out what happened. I looked around…the entire town was gone. And I saw you disappear into a portal."

"How did you know that?" She sounded surprised as she stepped back.

I held out her sword. "Your sword showed me. I can speak to crystals; you should be able to remember that."

She took her sword from me and bowed her head in thanks. Her own clothes, which were a blacksmith's apron with what looked like street fighter's clothes underneath, looked torn and ragged. "Thanks…for the sword. And yeah, I vanished into a portal. And…I was in this…line. I didn't know how to explain it, but it was this line…leading to a forge. Large, taller than me, elves stood around us, speaking in a tongue I didn't understand. They wore Dwemer armor, but they looked like Dunmer with their skin golden brown, almost like their armor. They were leading us to the forge…where they were…doing something. I saw bandits, people that lived in Helgen…they harassed us from time to time. They were leading the bandits to the forge. And these tall elves…they shoved the bandits in one-by-one into the giant melting pot. I could hear them screaming in pain…unbelievable pain…unbelievable screams…" She grabbed her head in horror. Her eyes started dilating and she started shaking her head. "Their screams…they were dying…melting into the liquid. And the elves…they were using them…using their melted bodies to build this…huge, monstrous machine…a war machine. And they called it something. A… what was it?" She tapped her head. "The Ni…ni something. Nimidum? Something like that."

Ashana's eyebrows shot up. "The Numidium." She walked right up to Dorthe. "How big was it? Was it completed?" She walked right up to Dorthe's face, who took a step back.

"What? No…as far as I could tell it was just some skeleton with barely a head even grown." She said. "But…my family…everyone in Riverwood is in that line. I need to get to them." She turned to the Warrior Stone. "Please…guide me on my quest!" She said to the stone. The stars on it started glowing, and a picture of a warrior started lighting up. Finally a round hole at the top started glowing with a bright light. But nothing else happened. Dorthe smashed her hand on the stone. "Come on…" She pleaded with it. "Guide me! Take me there!" She started slamming her fists on the stone like she was begging it to open up or something.

Ashana looked at me. "Ruby…I have a theory." She walked up to the Mage Stone. "Please guide on our quest." She held her hand out for Dorthe. Dorthe looked at her for a second before she took her hand. The Mage Stone made a whirring sound and it started lighting up like the Warrior Stone did.

I sighed as I walked up to the Acrobat Stone. "No laughing." I said to them. I raised my hands in a prayer. "Please guide us on our quest to bring Dorthe's family home…and safely guide us back from harm once we do so." I reached out for Ashana's hand. The Acrobat Stone started lightning up. Once the stone finished lighting up, the platform underneath us started glowing with a light that matched the three holes above us. The platform started glowing and this barrier started forming.

Dorthe's mouth dropped. "The Power of Three…I thought it was a myth…"

Ashana nodded. "You are a warrior…I am a mage…Ruby is an acrobat. We are the three needed for this quest. The Power of Three is us right now."

That was the last thing I heard before the land around us disappeared. Everything around us turned white for a second and then we were surrounded by stars. I looked around. We were literally surrounded by white dots that hovered all around us. "The Power of Three has heard your pleas." A constellation of stars in front of the Warrior Stone started lighting up as they spoke to us. "We will guide you on your quest. Do not run from any challenge and face it with ferocity." The stars in front of the Warrior Stone blinked away.

The stars in front of me started glowing brighter. "Be light on your feet, quick to action, and let your instincts guide you." When it finished, all the stars in front of me blinked away.

"Do not forget to ponder your situation and what best solution may be needed. The knowledge of what you may learn will help you figure out your next course of action." The Stars in front of Ashana blinked away last. We were suddenly engulfed in darkness, the only light coming from the faint glow of the three Stones we stood next to. I squeezed the hand holding onto Ashana's. I heard her sigh as we stood there in silence. Then…we were suddenly surrounded by red… lots and lots or red.

We were in some underground town. I could see the large ceiling with the red glowing veins of burning rock above us. Large buildings the size of towers surrounded us, all carved out of stone. Large rivers of what looked like lava poured through the river canals. And, off in the distance was this large red glow. It was this huge pot. We were still on our platform, but we could see it off in the distance. I looked at Dorthe. "Look familiar?"

She nodded. "Yeah…this is it." She pointed at the giant pool of lava out in the distance. "That's the spot. They were shoving people in that giant pool… melting them down." She looked at me. "Do we have to go?" She shook her head. "I can still remember the screams."

I shook my head. "Just hand me your sword and I'll go find your town."

She sighed as she stepped off the platform. "You wouldn't know them by seeing them." She looked back at me. "I remember seeing you once, but…that was barely enough to know what you looked like, or who you were. We should go together… just… you know… don't leave me."

I nodded to her. "We're a team right now. Just stay beside me and Ashana, and we'll get through this." _I wish I had a weapon though._ I closed my eyes. "I really wished I brought a weapon."

Ashana smiled as she looked at me. "You're supposed to be the acrobat, Ruby. And Khajiits are most nimble with their claws. You might have activated the Warrior Stone if you had a weapon with you. I think it's for the best we don't give you one, unless it's a bow."

"I don't know how to use one of those!" I said to her. I grabbed my head in frustration. "What on nirn are we going to do if we have to fight?" And that wasn't so much of a guess. If they really were Dwemer and they were using our people as fuel to build the Numidium…we would have a fight on our hands getting the people out of here. "Whatever." I said to both of them. "Let's go kick some Dwarven ass."

* * *

**Cearbhail**:

_I can't wait. The way things are going, I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm in the dark now, and piloting on just what my imagination whips up. Let's see where it goes, right? Hope it's a good ride. the Chronicles of Veselle have also taken a bit of a turn too. Since half of her story runs across this timeline as well. You know...when Asger goes over to Raven Rock. She's still in her perspective while all that's going on. And that will be closer than you think. Anyway, enjoy.  
_


	8. Numidium

**Cearbhail**:

___I liked writing this. Got a nice full chapter, and a new character. Well, two in fact. Well, anyway, things happen. You'll see..  
_

___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
_

* * *

_Dear diary,_

_Just earlier today, Ashana and I arrived in Riverwood. But when we got there, we didn't notice no one was there until after I had to create a new dress for myself. The previous one was destroyed. But that doesn't really matter at the moment. Upon arrival, we didn't see anyone, and the entire town looked like it had been deserted for a couple weeks at least. Well, I broke into the smithy's house and took my old friend's sword; a crystal wakizashi that my friend Cecilie had created. It was one of the first three blades ever designed. Well, I meditated with it and saw that portals and rifts had opened all over Riverwood. We saw the entire town being collected by spectral Dwemer. Even Dorthe, an old friend, had been shoved into a portal._

_After we found out what happened to the town, Ashana and I went up to the Guardian Stones to ask for guidance, as they are known for giving in times of great need. Well, we don't know, but we found Dorthe sitting on the ground next to the Warrior Stone. She was out cold. We woke her up and she told us about what she saw. The Dwemer were using people to build this giant machine called the Numidium. It's like this giant Dwemer death machine. Well, anyway, we prayed to the three Guardian Stones and they appeared to us…telling us to be brave, be quick, and be smart. And just like that, we found ourselves in this forgotten cave, deep below whatever pits of oblivion we landed in. We're on a quest to free the townspeople of Riverwood. But…I might have to go higher than that. If there are more people here…I will free them all. It's my job as a Crimson Blade, aka an Auran._

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm._

_…_

I finished my diary entry and looked back at Ashana and Dorthe. They both rested on the balls of their feet, hiding alongside the wall, trying to stick as much to the shadows as possible. The entire town was huge, and we didn't want to get noticed by the guards so we hid in the alleyways as we snuck through the streets. The streets were pretty active. Tall, I mean really tall, like seven or eight foot tall, golden brown elves walked through the streets. They dressed like Ayleids: long flowing skirts with geometric designs all embroiled into the fabric; mostly dark reds, corn-ish yellows, and whites. And they wore jewelry that looked like clockwork. Mostly like gears, golden circles, and long hats that were almost as large as their heads. The women were really slender, while the men were bulky, like they worked out for a living. It's just like they were born lifting weights or something. I couldn't explain it but there wasn't a flabby male at all. All the women looked like alchemists, calculating and precise. It's an odd feeling, but it's like they all worked with a hive mind.

As we snuck through the alleyways, I'd see the women going out shopping: buying clothes, food, metallic goods. Round orbs rolled through the streets; small spider-looking things doing odd jobs like digging; and these really tall buff-looking Centurions easily twelve feet tall would look around for anyone causing trouble. Yeah…these were the Dwemer alright. Since I was the acrobat, or thief, I snuck along the wall until I came near the end of the alleyway. The shadows helped keep me invisible, but it was really the malachite wand Ashana let me borrow. It hid my presence from those wishing to find me. I looked out at the street. Ten or more Dwemer were chilling, talking to each other in their Dwemer tongue. I didn't know what they were saying, but I had a good guess it was about their daily stuff: Johnny went out with Becky and got drunk and then slept with her sister or something like that. You know, normal stuff. Three giant orbs almost as big as me rolled through the streets and I could see steam blowing out the side. Oh... those were centurion spheres. Yeah, I remember once or twice I had to fight one. Not with my claws though. I don't think I'd stand a chance.

Standing near the edge of the street was a massive Centurion. I'm not talking about the small rolling orbs; I was talking about the massive hulking steam-spitting hero killer. He stood there motionlessly, as if waiting for someone to try to get past him. I sighed as I ducked underneath the shadows again. Right as I did so, a huge Dwemer dude dressed in full dwarven armor walked up to the alleyway. He looked around for a second, as if looking for someone that made a noise. He didn't look down at me, but he grunted and continued walking on. I held my breath for a few seconds before I sneaked my way back to my friends. Ashana and Dorthe waited for me around the edge of the alleyway. I met up with them, nodding to them as I passed the wand back to Ashana.

"What was it like? Can we just make a run for it?" Dorthe asked.

I shook my head. "No, the road is filled with Spheres and a massive Centurion." I scratched my neck. "We should stick to the shadows until we get to the pit. Once we free everyone, then we can make a fighting run for the exit." I looked up at the ceiling. We were in some deep cavern that was only lit by the red flowing lava above our heads and roaming in the river canals through the bigger streets of the town. Dwarven metal was impervious to lava, apparently. Their boats didn't melt, and I bet they found a way to keep the hull cool on the inside somehow. The Dwemer were really smart.

"Did you at least get a good look at which way we'd need to go?" Dorthe questioned me as she grabbed my arm.

I nodded. "Yeah, the pot is just up ahead. If we keep going down this alleyway, maybe climb up a building and hop the roofs…I'm sure we'd get there easily enough."

"Hop roofs?" Dorthe started complaining. "What are we? Assassins or something?"

I shrugged. "We're being sneaky. So yes…no one ever looks up. We climb to the top of the roofs and then we just… jump from roof to roof. We get there in no time and no Dwemer knows any better."

She looked like she was about to complain again, but she shrugged. "Ok…I'm onboard. Let's go." She slid her wakizashi out of her belt, tied the sheath and the handle off with her belt, and threw it over her shoulder. She started climbing, grunting as she started pulling herself up. "You'd think that I'd be a lot stronger since I work the forge…but… I'm really not." She complained down to me as she started climbing up the building.

"Can you climb?" I asked Ashana.

"I'm a mage, Ruby." She said to me. She pulled out a fairy quartz wand and closed her eyes. "I don't need to climb. I can fly." The wand started glowing and a magicka circle formed at her feet. She jumped off the ground, flying up ten feet before landing on another magicka circle she summoned. She pushed off, flying neatly up to the top of the building, landing gently on roof without a trouble. Wow… I really needed to get me one of those.

I closed my own eyes and focused on my hara, my source of magicka strength. I willed it to open, to flood me with energy. As the hara opened up, I felt my magicka flood all over me, all through me. My limiter snapped open and I felt adrenaline take over me. I willed my magicka to my feet and I ran straight for the wall. My foot planted right against the wall and I pushed straight up, sprinting right up the wall. I passed Dorthe halfway up. I started slowing down as I got towards the top. I bent down, grabbed the edge of the roof, and gently rolled onto the roof, coming to a stop just a few feet away from Ashana. I straightened my makeshift dress and nodded to her. "Yes, I _did_ just run up a wall."

She looked at me, arching her eyebrows. "It is amazing you can read my mind, Ruby." She said as she looked down at Dorthe. "Are you going to join us? We're eager to continue on."

"Well, sorry I'm no hero like you two!" She screamed from below us. Her hand grasped the edge of the roof. "I'm just…" She panted as she pulled her head over the top of the roof. "A forge-master's…." She took my hand and I pulled her up onto the roof. "daughter." She sighed as she bent over, gasping for air. "Is it just me…or is it like 200 degrees or something?"

Ashana nodded. "It is 134 degrees currently. Very dry though. I suggest we hurry before we collapse of dehydration." She looked away from us. Even from where we were standing, we could see the giant pot, with a long line of people forming near the end of it. The pot was on this massive plateau above the first level of town. We were on the first level. The plateau was almost near the top of the cavern. It was a giant series of dwarven mechanical pillars and beams. Underneath the massive pot was this drainage system. The hot boiling material made from melted humans and whatever else was going in there would drain into this long dwarven tube, where it was cooled in some large molding pan where the Dwemer smiths pounded what they wanted into shape. And directly underneath all the workers running around on the beams and pillars was a massive, and I mean humongous, easily over 100 foot long, skeleton. It looked pretty basic. But it looked strong. Hundreds of Dwemer were running around, pounding the cooling metal into shape and connecting the formed parts to the forming monster automaton.

"That is…not a good thing, I'm guessing." I looked over at Ashana, pointing to the monstrous thing. "What is that?"

"The Numidium. It is the single most destructive thing ever designed by the Dwemer. The Dwemer resented the gods, the Aedra and Daedra both. They were scientists and wanted nothing more than to claim that their brains were mightier than the gods. So…they built the Numidium to kill the gods. And that's what it does. It kills gods. But… it can destroy more than just gods. It can decimate entire towns with blast of its magicka cannon." She looked over at me. "The Numidium is a horror story passed on in my old tribe. They said in Morrowind Dagoth Ur tried to rebuild the Numidium for the purpose of spreading the Corprus across all Tamriel to make the entire world his slaves. The thing is a monster… and no matter who owns it, it only destroys." She looked at me. "We need to destroy it."

I nodded. "Yeah, and if we do…we can destroy this whole realm too." I looked at Dorthe. "You're a smith…" I pointed to the giant construction. "How do we destroy that?"

She sighed. "Dwarven metal doesn't burn with magma…doesn't rust, hardly breaks. I'd suggest you overpower it with another stronger presence." She shrugged. "I don't really know with what though. I'm not some dwarven metal worker. Just like with Orichalcum… you have to know what you're doing otherwise you ruin the metal you're working with. The armor we find nowadays, if it's pure dwarven, it doesn't break so easily. But if it's a replica…they break easily. But…" She waved to the Dwemer bashing in what looked like a thigh plate miles away. "They're Dwemer! They made this stuff. We can't just… I don't know…" She grabbed her head in frustration and defeat. "grab everyone and run. The best way to defeat it is to take away the ability to build it. And that means… free everyone."

I nodded and looked at Ashana. "Got that? We're so going to war with the Dwemer."

She looked from me over to Dorthe. "With what army? A crystal mage… an unarmed Khajiit… and a smith's daughter?" She shrugged. "Against an entire Dwemer army with colossal metallic titans?"

She had a point. We didn't stand much of a choice. "Then…we free everyone and then destroy their forge. That's one way to get rid of this whole problem. And in the confusion, get as many people as we can for the exit and leave."

Dorthe nodded. "I like this plan. Let's do that." She looked at me and then to Ashana. "Ok…I'll go with Ruby to find my parents." She looked at Ashana. "Can you, perhaps find a way to destroy the forge?"

She nodded. "I can detect several weaknesses in the support structure underneath that I can exploit. The whole structure should come toppling down." She looked over at me, walking up to me and grabbing my shoulder. "Ruby…do not forget me this time. I cannot travel back to Mundus without you."

"I won't forget you! Jeez!" I rolled my eyes and waved goodbye to her. "Give us at least a change to get to her family before you destroy that thing. Ok?" She nodded and took off in a run. She pulled out her wand, waved it around, pushed off the ground, and started flying off the roof towards the giant pot. I looked back at Dorthe. "Ready to run across some roofs?"

She sighed and shrugged. "I can try, right? How hard can it be?"

I nodded and ran for the edge of the roof. There was like a three foot distance from this building to the next. And it was a story lower. So, I jumped off the roof, soaring through the air for like two seconds before diving into a roll. I rolled up onto the balls of my feet, and turned back to face Dorthe. She stood near the edge, looking straight down at the alleyway three stories below us. "Jump!" I waved for her to hurry.

She sighed and took a step back. She screamed as she pounced over the edge, her foot slipping near the end, and she face-planted into our roof. She started crying in pain as she sat up, rubbing her face, which had a giant red spot where she hit. "That really hurt." She said as she looked at me. "Do we have to do that again?"

I nodded. "Yup, all the way to the end. And…these next roofs look more spaced apart, but at least they're on the same level as us now." I hulled her up onto her feet. "Just hold onto my hand. I'll pull us both along." And I didn't wait as I opened my limiter and flashed us forward. She screamed as I pulled her along. She could barely find her feet, and she just flew behind me. That didn't stop me. I reached the edge and jumped. I soared over the whole building, landing on the one after it. I jumped again, flying past three this time. Dorthe tried to scream the whole time, but she couldn't find any air to do so with. It was funny to see her squirm. I never got to hang out with non-adventurers ever.

We paused on the last roof before we had to climb down. In front of us was a long bridge filled with people of every race. They were all chained up with Dwemer torture cuffs. They hurt like hell. I remember once one of the slavers put me in one to break me. It was like this giant back brace with leg locks and arm restraints. If you tried to move too quickly needles plunged into your body, and they were built with natural magicka draining cuffs too. They would lock me up and then have their way with me to break me in. Seeing hundreds of people in a massive gaggle line heading to the pot just told me that…we weren't going to be able to do this. We'd need to get all the restraints off. But how? Then I thought of Ashana's wand that she used to unlock the door with. She could do the same for all these restraints. Ok…that's a plan at least.

I looked back at Dorthe, who looked lost in her own world. "Ruby…what did you just do?"

"I flashed." I shrugged. "It's ok; you're not a hero like me." I patted her on the head. "Ok, time to jump down and free our friends." I smiled as I jumped off the edge of the roof. I fell for two stories, landing lightly on the ground.

Two Dwemer guards saw me land and they turned to look at me. They looked at each other and started talking in their language. Finally, one waved for me to join the line and I shook my head. They talked again and that led to one of the guards unsheathing his dwarven blade. He walked up to me and I unsheathed my claws. I hissed to him as he walked up to me. He paused momentarily, tiling his head in confusion as he did so. I couldn't see his face; it was hidden behind his humanistic helmet he wore. He walked up to me, his sword aimed at me as he walked up. Right behind him, his friend started getting ready as well. And then…another Dwemer joined up. He wasn't wearing any armor or anything. He just had a spear. He ran up and attacked the guard. What? He attacked the guard?

The guard let out a cry of surprise as he turned to fight the boy. The Dwemer boy started fighting the guard, and my guard turned to fight him as well. I hurried as I jumped onto the guard's back. He started fidgeting as he tried to throw me off. I found a nice stop in the guard's neck to dig my claws in. He started screaming in murder as I ripped his neck open. Blood as black as oil dripped from his neck and he fell to the ground, grasping at his neck as he slowly gurgled to death. I turned to help the Dwemer helping us. He was already on his back with a blade being ready to be plunged in his neck. I grabbed the dead Dwemer's sword and charged forward. I caught the opposing slash before it could make contact with the Dwemer boy that helped us.

The guard looked at me for a second, looking up. He said something in Dwemeri at me right before the spear from my potential savior slid into his throat. The Dwemer gurgled as he fell on top of the Dwemer boy. I looked up at Dorthe, who looked down at me with surprised eyes. "He helped you." She said down to me. "Right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he did. Surprising, right?" She nodded. And I looked down at him as he started pushing the dead guard off him. I brought my sword up in a defensive pose as he started standing up. I stepped back, raising my sword as I did so. The Dwemer boy was a foot taller than me, so he was about 6'10". He looked at me, then at the sword in my hands. He looked down at the spear in his hand. He slowly put the spear down, showing me his empty palms. "Are you a good guy?" I asked him.

And he started babbling in Dwemer. Perfect. He patted his chest, saying, "Akulanten."

I touched my own chest, saying, "Ruby… or Nisha. I don't really care." And then I pointed up to Dorthe. "Dorthe."

"Ru…by." He pointed to me. "Dor…thy." He said as he looked up at Dorthe. He nodded and grabbed my hand. "Anasen drulan…" He pointed to the line of people. Then he started swearing as he waved his hand across the whole line. Then he looked at me and nodded, pulling me to follow him. By now Dorthe was done climbing down the building to join us. He led us through the line of people. Dwemer lined up to fight us on the way up though. There were easily twenty or more of them. Some of them were shirtless, with bronze whips that they used to urge people forward.

Akulanten nodded to me. "Ru-by, luukran!" He imitated slashing with his hands and then pointed to the most right guards… the ones with whips. He waved to Dorthe to join him. "Dor-thy, lai shinkran. Mai luukran Dwe-suunlak." He waved at the armored Dwemer.

Dorthe looked over to me for a translation. "He wants you to help him fight the armored guys."

She looked really unsure but she shrugged. "Ok…I hope this goes over fine." She ran up to join Akulanten and they started charging for the first couple guards. Just as they did so, there was a large explosion from the pot. The entire bridge started shaking and I looked down over the edge.

Ashana didn't have a chance to wait. The builders were already attacking her and she was on the defensive, running around as they brought their hammers down where she stood. They were breaking the beams with each swing, which made the entire structure rock back and forth. Part of the bridge near the end gave way and I watched as a few rows of people screamed in horror as they slid down the bridge into the boiling pot. They tried to escape, but as they tried to fight it their restraints started poking them and keeping them from moving. They cried in bloody murder as they boiled alive. Dorthe was right…listening to them die was horrible. And just like that, nearly 50 people were killed in front of us. More support structures started to give and the bridge started pulling down. I could feel my feet beginning to slide down towards the pot. I could feel the intense heat from the boiling magma already.

I looked at Dorthe and Akulanten. "Go, find your family and get them out of here." Dorthe nodded and grabbed Akulanten's hand. She pulled him to follow her. He looked confused but went along with it. I looked over the edge of the bridge. "Ashana!" I screamed down to her. She looked up at me briefly. "Forget the bridge… it's coming down already. Get up here and help us with the restraints." She nodded and started hopping into the air, jumping on her magicka circles as she raced up the bridge's support structure.

I turned to face the guards that were just getting up off the ground to fight us. A shirtless whip-snapper, possibly eight foot tall, screamed as he cracked his whip at me. I nimbly dodged the attack and brought up my dwarven blade. I ran forward, jumping into the air and kicking two tin-heads as I jumped past them. They weren't used to fighting smaller opponents so I doubt they knew what to do with me. Well, the plan was to kick them in the head and fly past them. But when I tried to kick them, it was like meeting a brick wall. My feet slammed down on their armored heads and I threw myself back instead of forward. I fell like a rock, slamming my back on the bridge when I hit. All the breath in my lungs exploded and I cried out in pain as I almost blacked out. It was so fucking hot! I couldn't keep this up for much longer. The two guards walked over top of me, preparing to stab me.

Ashana popped up over the edge, her two hands engulfed with crystal energy blades. She slashed and the blades extended. She slashed right through their armor and they fell down on both sides of me. They didn't move. I'm guessing Ashana tore their muscles from inside their bodies. She landed next to me and pulled off one of her wands. She waved it around and closed her eyes in thought. Her entire aura started glowing as she extended her will outwards. "Unlock!" She screamed, no… roared was a better term for it. She roared and just like that, every restraint started falling off the prisoners. They looked around for a clue as to what to do next. They mostly looked bewildered that they were free.

"Run for your lives!" I screamed. I pointed to the glowing lights off in the distance. "The Guardian Stones will guide you home. Only ask them for guidance!" The prisoners standing around me nodded and turned to scream it out to everyone as well. The message roared out among the masses and they started running for the stones, far out in the distance. I thought we had won when I felt another shift in the bridge. The entire support structure holding the bridge up to the giant pool of magma underneath us was gone now. "Run!" I screamed as the bridge shifted downwards. The giant pot at the end of the bridge was tilting as it fell with us. "Run!" I screamed as I picked myself up and ran for it.

My feet felt nothing but resistance as I started sliding down the dwarven bridge. Me and the rest of the slaves started sliding down the bridge. More cried out as they hit the boiling mess, crying out in pain as they melted away. I looked at Ashana. "We need to even out the bridge. Go destroy the support beams in the front. That way, we fall towards the town." She nodded and jumped off the bridge. A few seconds later, the bridge shifted and it started tilting to the left. Ok…that was not what I wanted. "What's going on down there?" I called down to her as I started sliding to the end of the bridge. The pool of magma underneath me bubbled. A few prisoners fell into the pool, screaming in even higher pitches of agony as they burned to death.

"The entire structure is compromised." She called. "I cannot stop it." She flew up, grabbing my hand. "I will save you, Ruby." She said as she pulled me right as I slipped off the bridge. She jumped off her circle and we flew in the air for a while before landing out where the bridge started. By now, waves and waves of prisoners were racing for the Guardian Stones. The guards and Centurions were busy trying to stop them, but there were just too many.

I looked at Ashana. "We need to make sure our friends make it out. Everyone."

She nodded. "I agree."

We both ran back for the bridge, which was toppling over. Hundreds of souls were crying out in horror as they started falling off. "Can we do anything to help them?"

She shook her head. "I'm not that strong, Ruby." She held out her wands and closed her eyes. Her body started glowing with magicka as she turned to falling prisoners. "Fly!" She called out and a wave of energy roared off her. One by one, all the prisoners stopped falling and they just floated in the air. Dorthe and her parents were among them. Akulanten and a few Dwemer guards that had survived were floating as well. I looked down at Ashana. She was bent over, taking deep breaths. "It will not last long, Ruby. Tell them to get moving."

"Swim! Swim/fly back to us!" I screamed to them. And they started doing it, except for the confused Dwemer. Dorthe grabbed Akulanten's hand and started swimming back to us. He was confused but started swimming as well. I turned to watch as the massive Centurion turned to fight us. I couldn't respond fast enough and I was slammed right off my feet. Besides the crippling feeling in my head from where I was hit by the hammer arm, my body felt crushed against the rock wall of the building I crashed into. Now, I was lying on the ground, head spinning. The Centurion turned and took a swing at Ashana. She managed to jump back. But then he breathed steam down on her. She cried out in pain as she covered her eyes and took a step back. Her fly spell started wavering and several people floating towards us fell to their death.

"Father! Mother!" Dorthe cried as she reached down to grab her parents. I couldn't tell if she was able to grab them. "No!" She screamed and I heard horrified screams of agony coming from underneath her. I struggled to push myself up. My hands were shaking; my head felt like it was splitting in two. The Centurion was walking over to Ashana, who rolled on the ground reaching for her scorched eyes. She didn't know the Centurion was about to stab her with its sword arm.

I looked down at the ring on my finger. It was supposed to hold back my …whatever it was called. I pulled the ring off and looked at the prisoners running for their lives, the ones falling as well. Dorthe crying in the sky, and my friend Ashana getting ready to be impaled by a Centurion. Something … primal started to stir inside me. A need to protect my friends made my chest throb… my limbs burn… my fangs hunger. I stood up and looked at the Centurion in front of Ashana. I didn't really know what happened then. I was just suddenly in front of the Centurion as he brought his sword edge down. He slashed down at me and Ashana, and I stuck out my two hands. I caught the blade and was able to hold him off as he continued his motion. His arm gave out and steam rolled out of his arm joints as I snapped the blade arm off at the elbow joint. Black ink squirted out at me but I didn't care. I flipped the arm blade around and pushed off the ground. I slammed the sword into his face and pushed as hard as I could. I watched as I ripped his head in two. The Centurion warbled as he collapsed, sparks flying out of his split head.

Spheres were targeting the prisoners running away; guards firing crossbolts through the streets. I don't really know what I did. I spread my legs apart into a balanced stance and spread my arms out like I was welcoming a challenge. A bardic stance of power. I hadn't used one of these in two years. I extended my will out to all of them. I snapped my eyes open and dominated every one of them. Spheres started falling apart, nuts and bolts flying off as they fell apart. The Dwarven snipers cried out as they bled out through their eyes. They crumbled to the ground. The rest of the prisoners ran for the Guardian Stones, which started teleporting them away.

I turned back to the rest that were barely able to stay afloat. Dorthe didn't even bother trying to swim towards us. She was crying over the loss of her parents. I sprinted as fast as I could over to the toppled bridge. I jumped onto the sideways metallic structure and ran alongside it until I got to her. I grabbed a Dwemer whip that had gotten tangled in the webbing and whipped it at her. I got her in the arm and willed the metallic whip to tighten around her hand with a bit of magicka to help it along. Once I had her wrapped up, I pulled her over to me. I wrapped her around in my arms and sprinted back across the bridge to where Ashana waited for us. She was too busy rubbing her blurred eyes to pay any attention to me.

I pushed off the bridge, flying through the air for a few seconds before landing right next to Ashana. I set Dorthe down and she just collapsed onto her knees, crying. "My parents are dead." She sobbed as she curled into a ball underneath me.

I looked at Ashana and helped her heal her injured eyes. I fed what Restoration magic I knew into her eyes and they stopped turning from a disturbed red to their normal pink-ish red. "Ashana, are you good?"

She nodded. "Yes, I believe I am able to walk now. What about the rest of the prisoners?" She looked around.

I nudged her for the portal. "They're ahead of us right now. Let's go."

Akulanten rushed up to join us, carrying his spear. He nodded a greeting to me and looked at the Guardian Stones off in the distance. "Mai vransken?" He asked me as he looked at me while pointing to the portal.

I nodded. "Yes, we're going to the portal. I think that's what you were asking." I pointed to him and then to the sobbing Dorthe. "Please help us with her." He looked down at the sobbing Dorthe and then back at me. He nodded, bent down, and picked her up. He carried her so easily that I thought he was just grown to be strong or something. I nudged Ashana to follow me. "Let's go." I waved for Akulanten's sake. I started jogging for the exit, but I heard something behind me. There was this really loud, whiny, grinding metallic roar/screech coming from the bridge. I looked back to see that skeleton moving. The eyes flashed open, a blood red light coming from the eyes.

Akulanten looked back, his mouth dropping. "Saminuim!" He pointed to the monster. Ok…so they had a different name for this one. "Ransken!" He screamed and took off running with Dorthe in his hands. I didn't wait to find out what was going on. I bolted with Ashana holding onto my arm.

"Don't worry, Ashana, I won't forget you this time!" I screamed to her. I felt every hair on my body rise, like it was being jolted with lightning, but I ignored it. And it just grew and grew until I had to look back. The skeleton monster with the red glowing eyes was looking right me. It swiped out with its hand so fast that I could barely pull Ashana away with me into an alleyway as the monstrous hand, easily big enough to flatten a normal building in Skyrim to nothing but dust, crashed into the street. The metallic street crumbled underneath the monster's hand, and magma from underneath started squirting into the air. I pulled Ashana with me as we ducked further into the alleyway.

We ran through the alleyway, taking a nearby left and sprinting as fast as we could. I heard metal above us creaking, breaking, and I had enough sense to pull Ashana down with me as the buildings all around us suddenly were destroyed by a waving gesture from the machine. Some metal fell on top of us, but I was still blood-raging so I was able to push up and throw it off. I could feel my magic already wearing off though, my adrenaline blurring my eyesight, my nerves returning. I was running out of fumes. I looked up at the monster. It was preparing to take a swipe at me. I couldn't run away this time. Nowhere to run. Then a bolt from a crossbow hit him right in the eye. It exploded with a small force, but big enough to make it cringe and look away from me. I looked away too. Standing on a rooftop, wearing a green hood, was a Bosmer I had never seen before.

"Run!" He screamed to me as he loaded another bolt. I nodded, picked Ashana off the ground, and sprinted with every bit of energy I had left. The monster machine slapped the building the Bosmer was on, and he jumped off right before the building turned into scrap metal.

"We need to help him." Ashana called from behind me.

I nodded. "Got any ideas?"

She pulled out her malachite wand. "Just one." She waved it at the monster and screamed, "Blindness!" A black orb of shadow magicka formed around the head of the monster. It screamed/screeched that roar of its and it started swiping madly at the sky.

I looked back at the Bosmer and screamed, "Run for it!" He nodded and took off. Meanwhile the monster was orienting itself to me and dragging its incomplete legs across the streets as it clawed its way over to me. I grabbed onto Ashana's hand really tight and flashed with everything I had. I was surprised to see the Bosmer racing right beside me, moving just as fast. Just who was he? He looked plenty old, with a ponytail that was white. He kept up with us as we raced for the three dots ahead of us. Waiting for us was Dorthe and Akulanten. He waved to us to hurry. I arrived one second ahead of the Bosmer and looked at the Acrobat Stone. The Bosmer joined me. Akulanten stood in the middle, completely confused as to what was going on. Ashana walked up to the Mage Stone and started her prayer. I looked down at the sobbing crushed Dorthe and then over to Akulanten. He was a warrior.

I walked up to him and made him face the Warrior Stone. I pointed to him and made a prayer gesture and then pointed to the Warrior Stone. He still looked confused, well more offended than confused, but he nodded and made the hand gesture. He started praying in his language. With the Bosmer doing his part, I just had to make sure we all stayed inside the platform. The monstrous machine was no longer hunting us. Whatever was powering it had died down; now it just lied in the street like junk metal. What a monster that was. And it was incomplete. Just imagine if we had to fight that thing for real. That would suck. Dwemer started coming out of their homes, looking at the monster and then at us. They turned and started running up to us, raising swords and crossbows. Before they could even get close enough to shoot, a white light surrounded us and I knew we were safely on our way back home.

* * *

**Cearbhail**:

_Yes, I totally went Mass Effect on this story. Incomplete Numidium chasing people through the street. I reallly, really, wanted to do a scene where he had the Eye of Magnus in his mouth and he used it as a magicka cannon (Remember Shoutmen?) to kill all the prisoners while they ran away. And that was when Ruby and gang were going to run into the alleyway like she did with Ashana. But...I didn't want the thing to have full capabilities yet, but you can look forward to the cannon being added next time it shows up. Yup. Anyway, hope you enjoyed.  
_


	9. Back in Riverwood

**Cearbhail**:

___This is a normal chapter. A lot of talking, and stuff. You'll see. Other than all that, I guess I'm going back to working on the other stories for a minute or two, since this questline has come to a close right here. Probably filler chapters will start popping up soon.  
_

___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
_

* * *

_Dear diary,_

_We had a weird night. We ended up in some underground cave of some sort filled with an entire town filled with Dwemer and fully automated monsters: spheres, those humanoids, and the spiders. We managed to find the line of people being used to smelt down Dwemer metal… eww… I never knew that's what it was made of… That's just disgusting. Anyway, we rushed to free the prisoners that were being led up this giant bridge to a pot on the other side, but the workers underneath the bridge started knocking it down. A lot of the prisoners fell to their death, whether by the smelting pot, or by the giant lake of magma underneath us. Either way, a lot of people died … Dorthe's parents included. We were only able to escape because this Dwemer guy: Akulanten, and a Bosmer: Faendal, helped us escape._

_As we ran away, the Numidium, one of the scariest things I've ever seen in my lifetime, tried to kill us and destroyed an entire block of the town just to find me. We got past him and used the Guardian Stones to escape. We had Akulanten carry the shocked Dorthe back to Riverwood. When we had gotten back, it was already midnight. The town was filled up with people; some who I'd never seen before. The Guardian Stones were supposed to carry everyone home to their towns. But, there were so many people in Riverwood, I was beginning to wonder if they didn't. Sure, there were thousands upon thousands in chains when we got there, but I saw almost a hundred people in the town…all shocked and partying now that they were back. Guess it's time to break out the moon sugar. And we partied all night. Well, Dorthe didn't leave her house. Neither did Ashana. I had to party though. I had to do something. Then I woke up in the river with a hangover. Guess I drank too much._

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm._

_…_

Sure, waking up in the river was a shock for me, but I've woken up to worse. One time I woke up in the back of a carriage, tied up and sure I had been raped by an Orc that had kidnapped me. Another time I woke up with Ranjier's foot on my face. And yet another time, I woke up to slavers in my room with my foster parents bleeding and nearly dead on my floor. This was the safest place to wake up from a blackout. I was sure of it.

I pulled myself out of the river and wrote my entry. When I had that done, I yawned and looked around. The streets were filled with people passed out on the ground. The sun was overhead, so it had to be noon then. Well, I was up until the sun rose so I guess that wasn't so bad. I stumbled as I tried to step over snoring partiers. They were just everywhere, and I didn't want to wake them up. So, it took me a few minutes of walking through the mess before I got to Dorthe's house. I knocked on the door and waited outside. A few of the partygoers next to the door stirred when I knocked on it.

One hungover man groaned as he rolled over to look at me. No matter how hard he covered his eyes, he couldn't help but squint as if he was nearsighted. "Mind not being so loud? Some of us are trying to sleep." He rolled back over and drifted off just as quickly.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the door. The door shifted open and Ashana stuck her head out. "It appears you have finally woken up." She opened the door for me to come in. "Are we leaving or is there more we must do?"

I walked into the room. "How's the Dwemer?"

She smiled, which was rare for her to do. "He is a delight to talk to."

"Talk to? You mean you can understand him?" I said as I looked around for the Dwemer. He was sitting in the chair by the fireplace. He was reading a book.

He looked up at me, nodding. "Not really." He said as he waved the book at me. "I spent all night studying your dictionaries…and reading other books in the library in this home." Oh yeah… I totally forgot: Dwemer are like really smart. They pick up on stuff fast.

"So…you're like uber good at Common now?"

"What's uber?" He said as he turned for the dictionary. "Sounds like it either begins with an 'O' or a double 'U'." He flipped through the pages, looking for the word. He finally tossed the dictionary into the corner of the room. "Useless artifact!" He cursed as he looked at me. "Did you make that word up to play with me?"

I shook my head. "No… it's colloquial. Not everyone uses it, so it's not a recognized universal term. It means 'really, really' … as in like huge or big or a high amount of something. When I said you were uber good at Common, I meant to say, you're really, really good at Common now."

He nodded. "Ah, I understand. So, it's a commoner's word. Interesting." He pulled out a journal and jotted the word down. "Any other small words of common value that you wish to share with me?"

I looked from him over to Ashana. "Ok… so… he learned how to speak like that overnight?"

She nodded. "I helped. I used crystal resonance to connect our two minds. I shared my knowledge of the language structure, common phrases, and knowledge of our alphabet system. He picked up the rest in books. And he…" She looked from me over to him and then back to me. "He helped me reestablish some of my … emotional aura." Her voice sounded so monotone that I wouldn't even begin to understand if that was true or not. And her eyes looked just as empty… but I guess there was a slight sparkle in her eyes when she looked at the Dwemer, and a smile. Huh… that's different.

I looked back over to the Dwemer. "Ok… so since we can properly talk now." I stuck out my hand for a handshake. "I would like to thank you for helping us."

He looked down at my hand and then back up at me. "What's the hand for?"

"To shake." Jeez, I remember Asger had to do something similar with a Lammer. All he got was bitten on the hand. "Don't you dare bite it." I warned him.

He arched an eyebrow. "Why would I do such a thing?" He said as he grabbed my hand. "So… what next?"

I shook his hand for him and then we let go. "Now… I want to know why you helped us."

He shrugged. "You think we're all onboard the 'Invade Tamriel' bandwagon? Some of us just want to go back and live in harmony. Not Qronlinshiaran though. He's convinced the Council of Five Towns that we need to invade. They have an entire army of automatons at their disposal and any Dwemer that steps out of line or confronts the army with the idea of living in peace is suddenly at the head of the Convergence Camps, right into the Soul Converter machine."

"The _what_?" What the heck was a Soul Converter?

Akulanten looked at me like I was an idiot. "I guess I need to dumb myself down for you." He looked at Ashana, waving at her. "She didn't need this explained to her." He reached for a pouch on his belt. He pulled out a small orb, like a Dwarven Sphere, but palm-sized. He pressed a button and it floated up into the air. A projection shot out the little eye near the top and the device hovered there while a picture of the bridge we saw popped up in the air above us. "This is the Convergence Camp." He circled the bridge with his fingers. "Lesser beings are gathered to be sacrifices to the creation of our Saminium." He circled the giant skeleton figure down below. "The Soul Converter is here." He circled the giant pot. "When we shove the lesser beings into the device, it not only converts their bodies into a metallic foundation for our stonework, but we also absorb their souls and use it to create a 'Heart' or better known as a 'Lorkhan' in our language. The souls are converted into this Lorkhan and we use it to power our Numidium. It roughly takes 100,000 souls to make a Lorkhan substantial enough for movement, but it also takes nearly 10,000,000,000 to make the necessary metal from humans to create such a monster." He shook his head. "It's a sick practice."

I looked over at Ashana. "Ok, so it's more complicated than we thought." I sighed. "I knew they were using the bodies to make the metal, but extracting their souls and using them for a Lorkhan? That… that's just sick, evil. Living was torture enough, but to have to live their afterlives inside those… things."

He nodded. "When you destroy the Lorkhan, the souls are released and the Lorkhan becomes an empty husk. The Lorkhan in the Saminium was incomplete and the souls managed to leak out before the monster could kill us. We were lucky."

I nodded. "Yup. Hopefully, it will take them a few hundred years to complete it. We sure are lucky there's only one of those things."

A sudden silence filled the air and Akulanten sighed as he widened the map of the factory. He pulled it out until it was the shape of a round planet. The small factory we were at was a small yellow dot by now. Hundreds of other dots started popping up. "You think there is only one?" He looked at me.

I scanned the map. With so many dots…what the hell? "Where are they getting all these souls and bodies from? We'd notice stuff like this happening!"

"The Council of Five Towns has forever lived in the Soul Cairn; a dimension created when we the Dwemer achieved astral projection for our race. We live under the Soul Cairn in the deep caverns, and use the souls we gather to build our Numidium's Lorkhan. But… for the metal we've been using our dead and dying. It is our burial custom to join our families as one hulking beast." He shook his head. "To aid in the conquest of Tamriel. Only shortly have we noticed a small disturbance in the portals and thought we'd use some other materials to aid in the completion of the process." He rubbed his chin. "And I've been chatting with Ashana about how the structural integrity of this planet's would come so quickly. A portal leading from the past to the present wouldn't be enough to do it; but I reasoned that maybe one of the Magicka Stabilization Centers has gone missing. Perhaps even misused."

"A Magicka Stabilization Center?" I looked from him over to Ashana. "What the heck is that?"

She shrugged. "He described it as a massive rotating ball of energy and metal created by the Aedra Lords to keep the flow of magicka in order so that the barrier keeping this world and the other worlds of Oblivion and Aetherius from colliding into each other." She shrugged. "Think of it like the planet's spiritual centers. Their… chakras." She looked back up at me. "He said there should be one up further north. It's supposed to be protected by guardians to that no one could ever get to it."

I rubbed my chin. "I wonder if the Eye of Magnus was one such device." I heard J'zargo mention it before, Brelyna too. They had been in awe of the thing. So… maybe it was one of these planet chakras that regulated our flow of magicka? I guess that could be correct, but did we really need machines for that?

Both Ashana and Akulanten shrugged at my question. Neither of them knew what the Eye of Magnus was so of course they wouldn't know if it was a Stabilization Center or not. Ashana sat down, sighing. "But the real question is this: if the Stabilization Centers are what are needed to keep the flow of magicka in this realm from colliding and regulating the constant ethereal barrier protecting us from portals from Oblivion and Aetherius … what are we going to do if these Centers cease to exist?"

I shrugged. "We find new ones. We know crystals can stabilize magicka easily, so we make one to replace the one that's gone. I'm sure we can figure it out." So, our gods had created the Stabilization Centers to help regulate the world's energy. If it was true that one of these was missing and the energy in the zone wasn't regulated, I guess it would make sense that pockets of energy would start popping up: rifts… portals to other realms. It made sense. The Eye of Magnus had been regulating our sector of the world and now it was missing: thanks to a Thalmor mage looking to use the device for some stupid reason. Now it made sense. I knew what we were dealing with. "Ok, I think I can believe the Eye of Magnus was one such device. So…where are the others?" I looked around. "We need to observe one and see if we can recreate it."

"What is this Eye of Magnus?" Akulanten asked, throwing his hands into the air. "I can't help if I don't know what it is."

I shrugged. "I don't know either. We'll have to chat to the wizards in the College of Winterhold. They had it for a week. They know enough about it to at least tell us what it looked like."

He nodded. "Then, I will go to this 'college' that you speak of." He looked at me and then at Ashana. "Can you take me there?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but can it wait a second? I have a … friend I need to talk to first." I looked at Ashana. "Where's Dorthe?"

She pointed down the stairs. "She hasn't left the basement since we brought her back. I thought it best to leave her be."

I had no such reservations and went right for the staircase. "Dorthe! I'm coming down to see you!" I said as I started walking the staircase. The basement was barely lit and there was a bed sitting in the corner of the room. Dorthe was lying on the bed, her eyes open but barely aware. She watched me as I walked down. The basement looked like a smithy. There was a forge oven in the middle of the room. A shelf littered with several variations of what looked like failed crystal blades sat alongside the wall. A full set of chainmail armor sat on a mannequin on the opposite side of the wall of the bed. Dorthe sat on her bed, scrunched up in a ball. I nodded to her as I walked up. I stopped by the shelf of attempted crystal daggers. "Did you make these?"

She didn't say anything. She shifted and turned around, putting her back to me. She pulled the covers of her bed over her. Ok, then. I guess she didn't want to talk. I reached for one of her daggers and inspected it. They looked frail and useless. No edge, but there was a vibrational hold. She had been able to replicate the crystalline hold that I retained in all my blades.

"These are pretty good. I can feel a good pulse from them." I looked over at her. "Tried to make your own?" She didn't stir from her spot at all. "I'm sure your dad would have been proud. Not every smith can say that they can make crystal swords."

She started sobbing when I mentioned her father. I placed the dagger back down on the shelf and walked over to her bed. I sat down on the edge and looked at her. She had buried her face in the cover so I couldn't tell what she looked like. I'm guessing a mess. I couldn't blame her though. She just watched as both her parents died.

"I'm sorry." I said to her as I started standing up. "I really thought we'd get everyone out of there. I should have known better… I should have been faster, done my security sweep while Ashana did her spell. If I hadn't turned around at all… I'd probably be dead too, Ashana as well. Heck, I don't think anyone would have made it back. It was just one giant mess." I shook my head at the memory. That Centurion had bitch-slapped me so hard that I was barely able to even stand up after I hit the ground. I had to blood-rage to go out and kick ass.

I looked down at Dorthe, who still refused to leave her covers. I guess I shouldn't expect someone I barely know to suddenly open up to me.

"Once again, I am truly sorry for your loss." I patted her on the legs as I stood up and started walking to the staircase. "If you ever need us, we'll be up in Winterhold at Adularia Hall." I stopped to look at her before I bowed to her. "If you're ever interested in joining us… I'll keep a room available for you. It has to be better than…" I waved my hand around the dark and damp room. "this. If you come with us you'll at least have some friends to help you."

She started pulling the covers off her head. "Fuck … you." She said and pulled the covers back over her head.

I nodded to her again. "Just think about it, ok? We're a new guild and we're looking for members. And this was our first quest. And it seems that our new Dwemer friend has a plan to keep this from happening again. We're heading up to Winterhold to see the College up there and talk to the wizards about the Eye of Magnus." I paused to see if she was stirring. "We'd love it if you came with us. You know… even if it's just to see the Crystal Palace, where High King Asger lives." She didn't move from her spot. "And there's a really nice smithy up there. It's run by a family of Orcs that are masters of working with Orichalcum. They also are masters of working with crystals too. I've made a lot of crystals swords and armors with them that line the walls of the smithy. You know… in case you ever wanted to learn more about the craft."

She groaned as she shifted in her bed. She poked her head out and glared at me. "You aren't leaving until I agree to come with you… right?" She sounded so spiteful.

I nodded. "Yup." I smiled as I crossed my hands. I might as well force her to come. The other option would be that she sits here and does nothing while the world around it breaks apart. Who knows, she might be important later on. "I just don't feel right leaving you here by yourself. It's our fault your parents are not here, and you are my sister's friend. You and I are bound by fate." I walked up to her bed and grabbed her wakizashi. I unsheathed it and examined the yellow and purple blade made up of citrine and amethyst. "Three blades were made that day: mine, yours, and Cecilie's." I sheathed it and passed it to her. "You're a crystal user, and I can see by your workstation that you're obsessed with replicating the sword's design."

"They're my father's." She said softly, looking at the wall. "He kept trying to replicate it, but without that blind girl, he couldn't get it just right the second time." She took the wakizashi from me and unsheathed it enough to examine the blade. "He loved the idea of a sword that could gather energy and unleash it as a blade, like what you taught me to do." She sheathed her wakizashi and pushed off the bed. "I…" She shook her head and sat back down. "I just can't leave." She looked around the room. "It's too soon. They just died."

I nodded. "Ok then. You know where to find us if you change your mind."

I turned and walked back up the stairs. Before I could even get to the top, Dorthe was running to catch up with me. "Wait." She called as she reached the bottom step. "Um…I really can't stay here." She started walking up the stairs, her eyes filled with tears. "I can't stand being in this house by myself. It's too painful."

As she came up to meet me, I wrapped her up in a hug. "Once again, I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "It wasn't your fault; wasn't my fault; wasn't anyone's fault! It just happened, that's all." She balled her fists up and she clenched her teeth. "That's a lie. It's the Dwemers' fault. They took us there; they pushed us in the line to have us cooked. They were going to do it regardless. They're monsters, every single last one of them."

Akulanten just happened to be close enough to hear that and he turned to face her. "Thank you for the compliment." He replied sarcastically.

Dorthe jumped back, screaming in horror as she wrapped her arms around me and pushed me forward. "He can speak Common?" She screamed through my back.

I sighed. "Yeah… he learned overnight."

She poked her head out. "Sorry… I thought you couldn't understand me. You're cool; you helped us."

He nodded. "Yes, I did. I was but one of twelve or so that would have done the same if they had been there at the minute." He looked over at me. "Are we leaving then?"

I nodded. "Yes." I looked back at Dorthe. "I think she's the newest member of the Crimson Blades."

She pushed off my back now that her initial fear of the Dwemer had faded away. "That's your guild right?"

I nodded. "Yup. That's us. We're the Crimson Blades, or just Aurans for conversation. We're basically a magicka guild that studies all forms of magicka… well that and we go out and do stuff like what we did today."

She shrugged. "Sure, why not. If I join you guys I might get a chance to fight more Dwemer in the future." With the idea that the world's barrier was coming down… that theory stood better than she could have guessed.

Akulanten scratched his chin. "This 'guild' … mind if I ask you more about it?"

Ashana smiled. "We can talk about on the way. Why? Thinking about joining us?"

He looked down at her, smiling in his own way. "It's not like I have anywhere else I can be. And if I stick around with you guys… I might learn something." He shared a laugh with Ashana. Ok… this was just getting weird. Since when did Ashana laugh?

* * *

**Cearbhail**:

_Ok, so we have Dorthe as the newest member, and Akulanten as guild-curious. He'll join eventually, but he's more interested in a certain person in the guild than the actual guild itself right now. But he'll get curious enough once he sees the guildhall. Dorthe will be the smith of the guild, as well as straight up fighter. She'll make all sorts of crystal armors and blades and test them on stuff, mostly herself though. i don't know what else I'll do with her, but ever since Ruby taught her how to use that blade, I decided she'd be the first official member. Although I had originally planned it that she'd just show up on the doorstep having run away from her parents because her mother wanted to force her to date some boy from a rich family that she hated. but I guess it more happened like this. Not sure it was better, but the story took me there so ... there it was.  
_


	10. Welcome to Winterhold

**Cearbhail**:

___Ok, not a long chapter but it's the best I could do for my situation. I know I haven't been posting, but that's because I'm just too busy in Japan to sit down and write. and usually, i'm too tired to think about writing. Today was one of my only days off and this took me ALL DAY to write. Between distractions, my general exhaustion, and my fragmented thinking between Japanese and English, and Russian, and Chinese... I'm really strained. My roommate barely speaks English but knows Russian and that's why they put me with this person, because this person speaks Russian fluently. So, I have to talk to my roommate usually in broken English since I don't really remember much Russian. and the other people in my group are Chinese so they don't speak English either. Talking to them is difficult but fun most of the time. I'm learning some Chinese from them. Anyway, I'll stop ranting about my problems. I have to fireworks to go blow up now with my groupmates.  
_

___Oh, and because I'm having so much fun with this oversees adventure. I have decided to do yet another story about Ruby's daughter, the Ka'Po'Tun, who goes to Akavir to study their culture and language. It will be just as hilarious as my own adventure here. i won't start the story for a while, however. I want to at least finish one of the other ones I'm working on first.  
_

___Oh...and enjoy. ^^  
_

* * *

_Dear diary,_

_Today is the 26th of Evening Star. It's taken us two days to get back to Winterhold. Want to guess why? Well, to start with, we had to pack up all of Dorthe's things and had to get situated on a carriage. Well, the carriage exploded, destroying all of our stuff. Yeah, it happened. Damn curse. Dorthe was too shocked to say anything so we just stood there and watched as the carriage burned away in front of us. After that was done, we started walking to Winterhold. Surprise, surprise. We found a couple dragons that were terrorizing a caravan. And since I knew the Khajiits in the caravan I ran in to help them. Next thing I knew I was being snatched from behind and eaten by one of the dragons. I had to crawl my way out and by the time I did so, I was miles away in the opposite direction. I had to sprint to catch up with my teammates. That took pretty much all day just catching up to them outside of Whiterun._

_And so we walked in the typhoon that had suddenly veered off its path in Akavir and into us. I have never been pelted with so much freezing water in my life. We had to bunker down in some abandoned fort, which was haunted by the way. We had to cleanse the fort and then wait out the rain. When that passed, we sprinted for Winterhold. I ran into a giant walking his mammoth. You can guess what happened. And then, and only then did we get back to Winterhold. I'm so fierfeking tired! But we have something to do first._

_Nisha Ruby Stonearm._

_…_

I sighed as I closed my journal shut. After two days of just stuff happening to me, I was glad to be back in Winterhold. The town looked pretty much as it always did. It was perhaps one of the largest towns in Skyrim at the moment, and all the buildings were new. We had an Orcish settlement right outside our town, not even a mile away. You could see it from the town's gates. We had three districts to the actual town itself. We had the Crystal District where the castle, fort, forge, and my guildhall were located. On the edges of that we had what we called the Commerce Circle. All the shops and restaurants were there. And then we had the Residence Sector; pretty much were everyone lived. And there were several styles throughout the whole town. You'd find a lot of different style buildings all next to each other. I'd walk past a Khajiit style house where some Khajiits had moved in, and then right next to them I'd see a family of Dunmer, and then next to them a family of Nords.

It made me happy to see that we didn't segregate our races anymore. The Khajiits lived alongside the Nords, and the Argonians next to the Dunmer. It was like we were all connected now. And even among all these houses, we had a few new races living with us. Last year we finished the construction of the water paths leading from the ocean into our town. We had rivers running in between the bigger streets and tunnels running under the smaller ones with covered holes for the Lamia to climb through when entering shops. Every shop had one such hole for any Lamia coming to purchase something. The pathways ran along the major route coming into the town since we were high above the ocean and the pathway leading to our town was closer to the ocean. They had to travel a couple miles to get to us, but it was worth it, I think. They loved coming to visit us. Some even moved in. They had a giant collection mansion filled with pretty much a massive connection of pools and a single floor. I would sometimes go visit them.

Dreugh were pretty weird though. They were here just as often as the Lamia but they didn't really interact with us much. I guess it was the fact we almost killed them all in the war two years ago, but it was their fault. But either way, they used the river system we had built into the town and they would come and go as they pleased. It was nice to see them. It showed to me that we could all get along without having some stupid war get between us. I just wished we could get along with the Aldmeri Dominion as well. But Councilor Fiirnar doesn't want to get along. He just wants … I don't know what he really wants. I just know it's not good. Cecilie kept warning me about him and how he would one day kill me. Over my dead body. Oh… heh. Guess I shouldn't think like that, huh.

So, we stood by the entrance to the town. Now, since I had been living here for the past two years, actually watching it grow in size, I wasn't really surprised by the massive size of the un-walled town. However, Dorthe hadn't ever been up here before. And she was stunned. As soon as we walked up to the giant shrine entrance that guarded the road leading to town, her jaw dropped and the bag of clothes slung over her shoulder rolled right off her and onto the snow-covered road.

"Holy hell." She whispered as she glanced at the town's massive Ayleid style shrine entranceway. "This is not how I imagined Winterhold would look." She shook her head in disbelief as she walked up to the town in a trance. When she got to the entrance, she ran her hands over the pillar that made up the shrine entranceway. "It's…beautiful." And it was. It was a thick Ayleid hexagonal stone pillar embedded with malachite to prevent scrying from the Dominion. The shrine entranceway was a set of two pillars on each side that helped support a sort of pagoda just large enough to keep the entranceway unpacked with snow. That way we wouldn't have to worry about being snowed in, and the malachite helped keep scrying eyes out of our town. On the top of the pagoda was a constant flames spell that glowed brightly, so that even in the worst of blizzards that anyone could find their way to the town. Winterhold was known for terrible blizzards, but here anyone could find refuge. We had more shrines like this all around town, completing a complicated magicka circle that I had engineered with the College. Eight shrines in total.

I nodded to the stunned Dorthe. I reached down and picked up what remained of her clothes in the bag. The rest were burned in the carriage. We managed to pull this sack out in time. Alas… I couldn't help but feel that I was cursing her too. First her parents were killed because of me, and now she lost most of her belongings in the fire. I wondered how much more she would suffer at the hands of my curse. But, as I looked up at her growing smile, I couldn't help but feel that I did something right. I couldn't just let her stay in that empty house by herself. She needed friends for what came next. And I was pretty much her only friend right now. And that's sad since we don't really know each other.

"Welcome to Winterhold." I yelled to her as I walked up. "Home of the great Stonearm clan. And I am Nisha Ruby Stonearm; High Princess of Skyrim." I nodded to her as I walked through the entranceway, joining her in the ankle-deep snow on the other side. I directed her attention to the smithy. "Over there is Orichalcum Works; the only working Orichalcum smithy in a Skyrim city. They also work with crystals there too, with my help of course." I chuckled as I pointed to myself. Hey, this was fun. I directed her to Adularia Hall. "And there is our guildhall, Adularia Hall. Just go on in and tell the tall Breton with crimson hair that you're the newest member. She'll give you a small interview, but just tell her Ruby cleared you for membership. She'll show you to your bedroom. Just go ahead and get settled."

She looked over at me and shook her head. "Not yet. I want to know about whatever it was the college knows about what's going on. I'm part of this guild now, and I want to know what's going on."

Really? That was refreshing. I was starting to like my new team. So, I nodded to her and started leading her up to the college. It was further into the town, but not too far. We walked past some of the bakeries and some of the houses. It was a nice walk for what it could have been. Akulanten and Ashana held back as she started introducing him to some of the stuff we had around the town. He was absolutely puzzled by the cake rolls we had. I watched as Ashana and he shared a strawberry cake roll and Akulanten burst out laughing as he tried to swallow it. He was so amazed by it that he bought a whole batch and started eating it. Ashana just watched as he ate them.

Looking back at the two of them, I was amazed that she could be so fixated on him. Maybe she liked him? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what it was. I mean, I remember when I found out I liked Maleek. I would do things like this, but he didn't like me at the time so it was harder to get him to do stuff like this. It was pretty clear that these two liked each other. That's very interesting. I could help it along, but I think my curse would only make it harder for them. Best let them develop feelings naturally.

I turned back to Dorthe and I continued leading through the streets up to the giant bridge that led up to the college. Faralda stood by the entrance to the bridge, sitting in a chair and reading a book. She held the book with one hand while a small spark of fire danced through her open fingers of the other hand. She looked completely bored, but I know training when I see it. She was working on her control of fire magicka. I don't know why; she is the best Destruction user in the college, maybe of all Skyrim. When she saw me walking up to her, she sighed and closed her book.

"Halt! Not just anyone can enter the college… Princess Ruby." She smiled as she stood up and stepped away. "But you are always welcome here." She bowed to me. "May I ask what brings you here today?"

I nodded. "Yes. Actually I need some help."

"Really?" Her eyebrows shot up. "It's not like you to ask the College for help."

"Yeah, I know." I sighed as I rubbed the back of my neck. "But this time, you know the answer." She waited patiently as I tried to think up what I was going to say. "And I'm going to share information with you. I feel that you need to know what I found in Riverwood."

"Riverwood?" She echoed. "What happened in Riverwood?"

"Dwemer attacked it." I said to her, glaring her right in the eyes. I wanted her to know that I was kidding with her.

"Dwemer? Attacked Riverwood?" She almost scoffed at the idea. "I'll bite. What's going on?"

"My friends and I were sent to Dawnstar to look at a rift that had formed inside an old temple. The rift was a collection of magicka that had pushed into itself so hard that it had turned into a white hole that consumed all magicka around it, only spilling out these magicka orbs that fed off magicka. We managed to close the rift, but then we got a tip that Riverwood was in danger. I went to go investigate with my friend Ashana. And when we got there, there was nobody left… save one girl." I pointed back at Dorthe. "She can tell you what happened to Riverwood."

Dorthe looked too stunned to move. She looked from Faralda over to me and then back to her. I nudged her to talk and she looked down. "It was… it happened so fast." She looked up at Faralda. "This…white thing, some hole, opened up in front of us. At first we didn't know what to make of it, so we kept away from it in case it was dangerous. And as we started backing away, these small round orbs started flying out of the hole. They ran over us, latching onto my mom and a few other people. I heard them scream in horror as they were thrown to the ground in pain. The rest of us started to run but more of those holes started opening up around us. And this time, it was these giant Dwemer soldiers climbing out. They walked over to some of the downed people and started picking them up, tossing them inside the holes. I was at the forge, helping my father craft another sword when it happened. They grabbed my mother and dragged her into the hole, screaming at me to run. So, I grabbed the sword that was being heated and charged in to fight the Dwemer carrying her.

"I ran up to him, slashing as hard as I could. My sword just passed right through him without hurting him. And then he grabbed me as well. He kneed me in the stomach and then threw me over his shoulder. He stepped into the hole and suddenly, I was surrounded by fire and heat. I was in some underground town. I blacked out and the next thing I knew I was being tossed off the Dwemer's shoulder. I hit the ground hard enough to snap myself awake. I watched as the Dwemer started attaching these slave suits to my friends and family. They were crying in pain as they were being chained up, the slave devices stabbing them with needles." She shook her head. "And then… I heard these screams, so unhuman. I couldn't help but look. I didn't realize it but I was at the end of this really long line that led up to some giant cauldron thing. And I could see as the Dwemer were pushing other people in the slave suits into the giant cauldron. They were crying out in agony as they fell to their deaths. When I looked back up at the Dwemer in front of me, he was reaching for me. Another Dwemer was carrying a slave suit for me. I didn't wait as I stood up and ran for it. I ran as fast as I could. And I didn't look back. Next thing I knew there was this white flash and then…" She looked over at me. "I found Ruby standing over me at the Guardian Stones."

Faralda looked up at me, her eyes wide. "And… what do you need from the college? What does this story have to do with anything we could possibly know?" Ashana and Akulanten walked up, joining us. Faralda looked from me over to the Dwemer. "What on this planet are you?" She asked as she walked up to see him. "You look…like an Altmer-ish Dunmer. Are you a half-breed?"

He shook his head. "I am Dwemer." He replied and that made Faralda stumbled from her feet, making her fall flat on her butt.

"You-you're … a… fuck." She said as she struggled to stand up.

"Fuck?" Akulanten threw his head back in confusion. He reached for his dictionary. "Did I miss that word?" He started flipping through the pages.

"Don't bother." I said to him. "You won't find it in _that_ dictionary."

He rolled his eyes and slipped the dictionary back into his pocket. "Very well." He turned to look at Faralda. "If I may finish the story." She nodded frantically as she walked up to him, inspecting him with blazing hands. She looked too lost for words as he started recalling what happened next. "I found these three girls in our village trying to free our captured prisoners. The prisoners were captured with the intent of being smelt down to form our metallic base used to create our Numidium."

"Numidium?" Faralda almost screamed as she looked over at me. "Is that for real? _That_ exists?"

I nodded. "Not just one…hundreds." I shook my head. "And the one I fought was incomplete. It was a skeleton with a broken Lorkhan."

"Lorkhan?" She echoed. She sank down to her knees in the snow. "Oh no…oh no… this is impossible."

"It is not impossible." Akulanten announced. "The Lorkhan are created by extracting the souls offered to the Soul Converter. The bodies are melted down into the metal while the soul is pulled away and shoved into the Lorkhan's shell. It takes about 50,000 souls to make a Lorkhan, and about 10,000 bodies to aid in the construction of Numidium." What? Those weren't the numbers he gave me earlier. That seemed a lot less… a _lot_ less. He looked over at me like he read my mind. "Sorry, I miscalculated the translation for the number I had in my head." He looked over at her. "The souls are stored into our Lorkhan, or better known as a heart in your language, so that our Numidium may rise and destroy the gods. And we have hundreds of them nearly completed,"

Faralda looked pale as a ghost. "All this time…the Lorkhan…it's some… it's a battery." She covered her face. "The Aedra… the heart of Lorkhan… it's all a lie."

He shook his head. "It is not a lie. The Aedra Lords do exist and it was the Dwemer that started a war with them. We wanted to prove to ourselves that we could create our own gods, our own beings that could replace the gods. We wanted to be gods. And we found a way to transport ourselves to Aetherius in hopes to fight the gods. We found ourselves trapped in the Soul Cairn instead. And so we started getting to work for our invasion. We hoped that if we completed our master Numidium, called the Sandanumidium, that we could break through the barriers keeping us trapped in the Soul Cairn and invade Aetherius." He shook his head. "That monstrosity can only be formed when one hundred Numidium are hooked together. And when it's finished…. No one will stand a chance."

She looked from Akulanten over to me, her face as white as snow. "And what can the College do for you today?" She sounded so empty, like she was a shell of herself.

Ashana stepped up. "We have a theory that the Eye of Magnus is a Magicka Stabilization Center. In short, the Eye of Magnus may have been a key point in the planet's defenses against dimensional rifting. Ever since the Aedra War 200 years ago, our dimensional rifts were weakened by the constant reopening of massive portals between Oblivion and Aetherius. It is because of this phenomenon that a portal containing Alduin was able to open in our timeline. And it is because of that giant portal that our dimensional stability is on a decline. The Eye of Magnus is supposed to aid us in our support of structural integrity of this planet's defenses against rifting: a process where unregulated magicka is gathered and without guidance starts crashing against other waves of magicka. With enough time the magicka will become too frantic and will start creating holes in our dimensions… making all sort of portals between our world and the other ones surrounding us open up. And it is for the reason that the Eye of Magnus is gone that we believe rifts are opening up all around Skyrim. With our magicka currents going unfocused, we are experiencing magicka flooding and whirlpools creating rifts. We have come here today to ask some questions about the Eye of Magnus to better understand what it was, what it did, and where we can find more just like it."

I looked down at Faralda. She was as white as the snow and her bright red eyes were wide as she glared up at us. She sat like that for a few seconds before she shook the shock off her face. "Ok, I think I understand now. Your queries are derived on the premise that the rifts you have been experiencing are coming from the Eye of Magnus, which was used by Ancano two years ago to almost destroy the entire college itself." She sighed as she stood up. "I will tell you everything I know. I spent a lot of time near the Eye, studying its magical output. I know just as much about it as High King Asger and Tolfdir."

I found myself smiling as Faralda looked at us. So, we wouldn't even have to go inside the College to get our answers? That was good. I didn't like being in there so much. Tolfdir was nice though, if not a little more subtle in his perverted line of thinking. The other mages all looked down on me for practicing shamanism over their specific spell types. I'd rather not have Dorthe experience that before she actually joins us. "That would be great." I said to Faralda. "The first thing we want to know…what did it look like?"

She shrugged. "It was a massive ball of whirring metal with a core of pure magicka inside it. And you could tell that it was pulling and pushing magicka from all around it. It acted like it was a balancer. And when Ancano started messing with it, he did something that caused all the magicka to collect around it like a giant hurricane. Anyone that got too close would have their soul stripped away, their body a lifeless corpse." She shook her head. "We lost some of our most powerful mages trying to slow that thing down."

Akulanten nodded. "That sounds exactly like a Magicka Stabilization Center." He looked at me. "It is confirmed: the Eye of Magnus may have been one of these things." He looked back at her. "Where did you find it?"

"Under Saarthal; it's an old ruin to the west of town. The High King and Tolfdir found it under the ruins." She said.

Akulanten nodded. "May this Tolfdir show us where he found it?"

No, no, no, no, no! I really, really, didn't want that to happen. I didn't want to spend a whole day with that old man.

"Sure. I'll go get him. Just wait out here." She turned to leave. I watched as she ran up the bridge as fast as she could. I'm guessing she thought this was a matter of urgency, which it was.

I groaned as I looked over at Akulanten. "Why did you do that?"

He glanced at me, puzzled at my question. "Were we not planning on locating the source of the Stabilization Center? It if it true that the Eye of Magnus was one of these ancient centers…will we not have to replace it at some point?" Huh… I guess that was true.

"Yeah, you got me there. But still… Tolfdir?" I groaned. "I really don't want to spend all day with _Tolfdir_."

"Why not?" Dorthe asked.

I sighed and looked at Dorthe. "You will find out soon enough." I gestured her to follow me. "You should go drop off your stuff in our hall. We'll wait for you to come back."

"Oh… ok." She replied and started walking towards Adularia Hall. She turned back to look at me. "Um…Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"Is there anything I should know?" She asked.

"Yeah, if you run into this really old bald guy named Esbern, try to keep your skirt as far down as possible. If not, he will find a way to peek up your skirt." I screamed to her. And since the Blades Fort was right next to the bridge leading up to the College, I was sure that the old man had heard me screaming about him.

Her face turned a deep red. "Um…thanks for the warning." She turned around and started fussing with her skirt as she walked away.

* * *

**Cearbhail**:

_Ok, so next chapter Tolfdir gets introduced into the story. Man... I hope you love what I'm going to make him. Think of the classic old man with so many stories that he just never shuts up. Yup, that's Tolfdir.  
_


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